A new heat transfer correlation for flow boiling in helically coiled tubes

Based on the superposition principle of the nucleate boiling and convective heat transfer terms,a new correlation is developed for flow boiling heat transfer characteristics in helically coiled tubes.The effects of the geometric and system parameters on heat transfer characteristics in helically coiled tubes are investigated by collecting large amounts of experimental data and analyzing the heat transfer mechanisms. The existing correlations are divided into two categories,and they are calculated with the experimental data.The Dn factor is introduced to take into account the effect of a complex geometrical structure on flow boiling heat transfer.A new correlation is developed for predicting the flow boiling heat transfer coefficients in the helically coiled tubes,which is validated by the experimental data of R134a flow boiling heat transfer in them;and the average relative error and root mean square error of the new correlation are calculated.The results show that the new correlation agrees well with the experimental data,indicating that the new correlation can be used for predicting flow boiling heat transfer characteristics in the helically coiled tubes.

Influence of nanoparticle concentrations on flow boiling heat transfer coefficients of Al_2O_3/R141b in micro heat exchanger by direct metal laser sintering

Al2O3/R141b ＋ Span-80 nanorefrigerant for 0.05 wt.% to 0.4 wt.% is prepared by ultrasonic vibration to investigate the influence of nanoparticle concentrations on flow boiling heat transfer of Al2O3/R141b ＋ Span-80 in micro heat exchanger by direct metal laser sintering. Experimental results show that nanoparticle concentrations have significantly impact on heat transfer coefficients by homogeneity test of variances according to mathematical statistics. The heat transfer performance of Al2O3/R141b ＋ Span-80 nanorefrigerant is enhanced after adding nanoparticles in the pure refrigerant R141b. The heat transfer coefficients of 0.05 wt.%, 0.1 wt.%, 0.2 wt.%, 0.3 wt.% and 0.4 wt.% Al2O3/R141 b ＋ Span-80 nanorefrigerant respectively increase by 55.0% 72.0%, 53.0% 42.3% and 39.9% compared with the pure refrigerant R141b. The particle fluxes from viscosity gradient, non-uniform shear rate and Brownian motion cause particles to migrate in fluid especially in the process of flow boiling. This migration motion enhances heat transfer between nanoparticles and fluid. Therefore, the heat transfer performance of nanofluid is enhanced. It is important to note that the heat transfer coefficients nonlinearly increase with nanoparticle concentrations increasing. The heat transfer coefficients reach its maximum value at the mass concentration of 0.1% and then it decreases slightly. There exists an optimal mass concentration corresponding to the best heat transfer enhancement. The reason for the above phenomenon is attributed to nanoparticles deposition on the minichannel wall by Scanning Electron Microscopy observation. The channel surface wettability increases during the flow boiling experiment in the mass concentration range from 0.2 wt.% to 0.4 wt.%. The channel surface with wettability increasing needs more energy to produce a bubble. Therefore, the heat transfer coefficients decrease with nanopartide concentrations in the range from 0.2 wt.% to 0.4 wt.%. In addition, a new correlation has been proposed by fitting the experimental data considering the influence of mass concentrations on the heat trans- fer performance. The new correlation can effectively predict the heat transfer coefficient.

Study on dryout point and heat transfer in subcooled flow boiling through vertical narrow annular channels

The purpose of this study is to conduct the dryout point and heat transfer correlation for subcooled boiling flow in narrow annuli. First, the dryout point of subcooled flow boiling of water was measured in narrow annular channels under the working condition of pressure ranging from 0.1 to 0.3 MPa and low mass flow rate from 6 to 60 kgm^-2 s^-1. Experimental test channels were annular and heated bilaterally with the channel gap of lmm and 1.5mm, and heated length of 1500mm.The location of the dryout was observed and measured by experiment with investigating the various system parameter effects on dryout point, and the results show that the location of dryout point is basically stable and repeating and the heat transfer coefficient increased with heat flux, mass flux and pressure, however, decreases with the gap size. Next, new correlations of CHF and critical vapor quality for narrow annular channels was proposed and calculation results shown a good agreement with the experimental data.

A New Experimental Rig of Testing Flow Boiling Heat Transfer of Refrigerantand Lubricant Mixture

This paper proposed a new experimental rig of testing flow boiling heat transfer of refrigerant and lubricant oil mixture. The quantity of oil in the test section can be controlled and regulated conveniently and accurately by connecting separate lubricant oil circuit with test section in parallel. It was built up by retrofitting a multiple air-conditioner and installing three oil-separators in serials at the compressor outlet. And so the lubricant oil in the discharged refrigerant gas of compressor can be removed completely.The refrigerant flow rate through test section can be bypassed by the by-path circuit of indoor unit.This experimental rig has advantages such as on-line and continuous oil injection, short time of obtaining stability, flexible operation, simple control, which lead to high efficiency in the research of flow boiling heat transfer of refrigerant and lubricant oil mixture.

Enhancement of Flow Boiling Heat Transfer with Surfactant

The surfactant additive octadecylamine (ODA) was used to enhance the flow boiling heat transfer of water in vertical copper tube, and the effects of the aqueous solution properties, mass fraction of ODA, mass flux and heat flux etc. on flow boiling heat transfer were investigated. In order to analyze the mechanism of enhancement on boiling heat transfer with ODA, the copper surface was detected by XPS, and the diagram of binding energy was obtained. The results show that ODA can be adsorbed on the surface of the copper wall, and affects the properties of the heating surfaces and enhances the flow boiling heat transfer of water. Only in low heat flux and in a suitable range of concentration, can ODA aqueous solution enhance flow boiling heat transfer, and the suitable mass fraction of ODA is in the range of 1×10 -5 5×10 -5 . In addition, compared with water, ODA aqueous solution does not increase the flow drag under the same experimental conditions.

Effect of wall temperature modulation on the heat transfer characteristics of droplet-train flow inside a rectangular microchannel

The numerical studies of water–oil two-phase slug flow inside a two-dimensional vertical microchannel subjected to modulated wall temperature boundary conditions have been discussed in the present paper.Many researchers have contributed their efforts in exploring the characteristics of Taylor flows inside microchannel under constant wall heat flux or isothermal wall conditions.However,there is no study available in the literature which discusses the impact of modulated thermal wall boundary conditions on the heat transfer behavior of slug flows inside microchannels.Hence,to bridge this gap,an effort has been made to understand the heat transfer characteristics of the flow under sinusoidal wall temperature conditions.Initially,a single phase flow and heat transfer study was performed in microchannels,and the results of the fully developed velocity profile and heat transfer rate were validated with benchmark analytical results.Then an optimal selection of the combination of sinusoidal thermal wall boundary conditions has been made for the two-phase slug flow study.Later,the effects of amplitude(0 bεb 0.03)and frequency(0 bωb 750πrad·s-1)of the sinusoidal wall temperature profile on the heat transfer have been studied using the optimal combination of the wall boundary conditions.The results of the numerical study using modulated temperature conditions on channel walls showed a significant improvement in the heat transfer over liquid-only flow by approximately 50%as well as over two-phase flow without wall temperature modulation.The non-dimensional temperature contours obtained for different cases of temperature modulation clearly explain the root cause of such improvement in the heat transfer.Besides,the results based on the hydrodynamics of the flow have also been reported in terms of variation of droplet shapes and film thickness.The influence of Capillary number on the film thickness as well as heat transfer rates has also been discussed.In addition,the measured film thickness has also been compared with that calculated using standard empirical and analytical models available in the literature.The heat transfer rate obtained from the numerical study for the case of unmodulated wall temperature was found to be in a close match with a phenomenological model to evaluate slug flow heat transfer having a mean absolute deviation of 7.56%.

Flow Boiling Heat Transfer Characteristics and Delayed Dry-Out Ability of Non-Azeotropic Mixtures R245fa/R134a in Microchannels

Microchannel flow boiling heat transfer has the advantages of strong heat dissipation capacity,good temperature uniformity,and compact structure.It is an excellent way to thermally manage electronic devices,but when the heat flux exceeds CHF(Critical Heat Flux),the heat transfer performance deteriorates as the working fluid dries out.Non-azeotropic mixtures have the potential to effectively delay or avoid dry-out during the boiling process due to their temperature slide characteristics which causes the mass transfer resistance.To understand the influence of non-azeotropic mixtures on microchannel flow boiling,using the phase-change microchannel heat sink as the research object,the experiments on the flow boiling heat transfer performance of R245fa/R134a mixtures under different working conditions were carried out,and the characteristics of flow boiling heat transfer were obtained under the different working conditions,and comparison was developed with those of pure substance R245fa.The results demonstrated that a small amount of low-boiling-point components in the high-boiling-point working fluid inhibited boiling heat transfer to some extent,and lowered the average heat transfer coefficient under the non-dryout condition slightly lower than that of the pure substance;however,it also effectively delayed the onset of local dry-out and prevented significant deterioration in thermal transfer performance under the lower mass flow rate and higher heat flux,which could enhance the heat sink's stability.

Experimental and Numerical Analysis of the Influence ofMicrochannel Size and Structure on Boiling Heat Transfer

Computational fluid dynamics was used and a numerical simulation analysis of boiling heat transfer in microchannels with three depths and three cross-sectional profiles was conducted.The heat transfer coefficient and bubble generation process of three microchannel structures with a width of 80μm and a depth of 40,60,and 80μm were compared during the boiling process,and the factors influencing bubble generation were studied.A visual test bench was built,and test substrates of different sizes were prepared using a micro-nano laser.During the test,the behavior characteristics of the bubbles on the boiling surface and the temperature change of the heated wall were collected with a high-speed camera and a temperature sensor.It was found that the microchannel with a depth of 80μm had the largest heat transfer coefficient and shortest bubble growth period,the rectangular channel had a larger peak heat transfer coefficient and a lower frequency of bubble occurrence,while the V-shaped channel had the shortest growth period,i.e.,the highest frequency of bubble occurrence,but its heat transfer coefficient was smaller than that of the rectangular channel.

Flow boiling heat transfer in copper foam fin microchannels with different fin widths using R134a

Heat sinks of copper foam fin microchannels are developed to deal with cooling challenges.The heat sinks consist of fins made of copper foam and channels.The channels are 0.5 mm in width and 1 mm in height,and the fins are 0.5 and 2.0 mm in width.Flow boiling experiments are conducted using R134a at subcooled and saturated inlet conditions.The heat flux is between 22 and 172 W/cm^(2),and the mass flux ranges from 264 to 1213 kg/(m^(2)s).The influence of the quality,the heat flux,and the mass flow rate on the heat transfer coefficient is obtained.It is found that wider fin raises the heat transfer coefficient.A correlation is developed based on heat transfer mechanisms,and it predicts the experimental result with a 12%mean absolute error.Compared with a solid fin microchannels heat sink,the heat transfer coefficient of the copper foam fin microchannels is higher(up to 60%)when the heat flux is lower than 100 W/cm^(2).The copper foam fin microchannels may enhance the heat transfer coefficient and reduce the pressure drop at the same time.

Boiling Heat Transfer in Circulating Fluidized Beds

A model is proposed to predict boiling heat transfer coefficient in a three-phase circulating fluidized bed (CFB), which is a new type of evaporation boiling means for enhancing heat transfer and preventing fouling. To verify the model, experiments are conducted in a stainless steel column with 39mm ID and 2.0m height, in which the heat transfer coefficient is measured for different superficial velocities, steam pressures, particle concentrations and materials of particle. As the steam pressure and particle concentrations increase, the heat transfer coefficient in the bed increases. The heat transfer coefficient increases with the liquid velocity but it exhibits a local minimum.The heat transfer coefficient is correlated with cluster renewed model and two-mechanism method. The prediction of the model is in good agreement with experimental data.

Numerical study on two-phase boiling heat transfer performance of interrupted microchannel heat sinks

The conventional straight microchannel heat sinks have been reported to inadequately remove the increasing power density of electronics.In recent years,an effective heat transfer enhancement method,flow disruptions have attracted the attention of researchers,where interrupted structures are arranged in the microchannel to enhance flow mixing and heat transfer.However,previous numerical studies of interrupted microchannel heat sinks(I MCHS)mainly focus on single-phase flow condition,and the characteristics of the boiling heat transfer of I MCHS in two-phase flow condition have been rarely explored.Thus,the flow and heat transfer characteristics of two I MCHS based on rectangular microchannel heat sink(R MCHS)are investigated by modeling both single-phase and two-phase flow conditions.These two interrupts consist of a combination of cavities and ribs,namely elliptical cavities and elliptical side ribs(EC-ESR),and elliptical cavities and elliptical central ribs(EC-ECR).The results show that for single-phase flow condition,the maximum Nusselt number is increased by 187%in the EC-ESR design and150%in the EC-ECR design compared with the R MCHS.For subcooled boiling(i.e.,two-phase flow)condition,the EC-ECR design is a promising structure to enhance boiling heat transfer with 6.7 K reduction of average wall temperature and 29%increment of local heat transfer coefficient when compared with those of R MCHS.However,the local heat transfer coefficient in the EC-ESR design is decreased by 22%compared with the R MCHS due to the formation of a rare flow pattern(i.e.,inverted annular flow with vapor film separation)in the microchannel.This flow pattern can induce departure from nucleate boiling(DNB),thereby deteriorating the heat transfer on the channel walls.

Experimental investigation of surface roughness effects on flow behavior and heat transfer characteristics for circular microchannels

This paper experimentally investigates the effect of surface roughness on flow and heat transfer characteristics in circular microchannels. All test pieces include 44 identical, parallel circular microchannels with diameters of 0.4 mm and 10 mm in length. The surface roughness of the microchannels is R= 0.86, 0.92, 1.02 lm, and the Reynolds number ranges from 150 to 2800.Results show that the surface roughness of the circular microchannels has remarkable effects on the performance of flow behavior and heat transfer. It is found that the Poiseuille and Nusselt numbers are higher when the relative surface roughness is larger. For flow behavior, the friction factor increases consistently with the increasing Reynolds number, and it is larger than the constant theoretical value for macrochannels. The Reynolds number for the transition from laminar to turbulent flow is about 1500, which is lower than the value for macrochannels. For the heat transfer property, Nusselt number also increases with increasing Reynolds number, and larger roughness contributes to higher Nusselt number.

Experimental investigation of nitrogen flow boiling heat transfer in a single mini-channel

Flow boiling heat transfer of nitrogen at high subcritical pressure conditions in a single vertical mini-channel with the diameter of 2.0 mm was experimentally investigated.The tested mass flux varied from 530 to 830 kg/(m^2·s),the inlet pressure ranged from 630 to 1080 kPa,and the heat flux ranged from 0 to 223.2 kW/m^2.Effects of the mass flux and the inlet pressure on the nitrogen boiling curve were examined.Results showed that within the limited test conditions,the merging of three boiling curves indicates the dominance of nucleate boiling and the inlet pressure has a positive enhancement on heat transfer performance.Three heat transfer trends were identified with increasing heat flux.At low heat fluxes,the heat transfer coefficient increases first and then decreases with vapour quality.At intermediate heat fluxes,the heat transfer coefficient versus the vapour quality presents an inverted"U"shape.At high heat fluxes,a double valley shape was observed and the partial dry-out in intermittent flow and annular flow helps to interpret the phenomenon.The increasing inlet pressure increases the heat transfer coefficient over a wide range of vapour quality until the partial dry-out inception.The lower surface tension and lower latent heat of evaporation enhance the nucleate boiling for higher inlet pressure.A modified experimental correlation(mean absolute error(MAE)=19.3%)was proposed on the basis of the Tran correlation considering both the nucleate boiling and the partial dry-out heat transfer mechanism.

Role of trapped liquid in flow boiling inside micro-porous structures:pore-scale visualization and heat transfer enhancement

Flow boiling is an important heat dissipation method for cooling high heat flux surfaces in many industrial applications.The heat transfer can be further enhanced by using porous media surfaces due to their high specific surface areas.However,although flow boiling in channels is well understood,the phasechange behavior with the additional capillary effect induced by the porous structures is not well understood,and the design of the porous structures is difficult to avoid dryout and over-temperature accidents.A pore-scale lab-on-a-chip method was used here to investigate the flow boiling heat transfer characteristics inside micro-porous structures.The flow patterns,captured in the two-phase region with a uniform pore-throat size of 30 lm,showed that liquid was trapped in the pore-throat structures as both dispersed liquid bridges and liquid films.Moreover,the liquid film was shown to be moving on the wet solid surface by laser-induced fluorescence and particle tracking.A theoretical analysis showed that the capillary pressure difference between adjacent liquid bridges could drive the liquid film flows,which helped maintain the coolant supply in the two-phase region.The pore-throat parameters could be designed to enhance the capillary pressure difference with multiple throat sizes of 10–90 lm which would enhance the heat transfer 5%–10%with a 5%–23%pressure drop reduction.This research provides another method for improving the flow boiling heat transfer through the porous structure design besides changing the surface wettability.

Experiment on Boiling Heat Transfer of Refrigerant R134a in Mini-channels

The flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of refrigerant R134 a flowing inside two different kinds of minichannels are investigated. One channel is multi-port extruded with the hydraulic diameter of 0.63 mm,and the other one is rectangular with offset fins and a hydraulic diameter of 1.28 mm. The experiments are performed with a mass flow rate between 68 and 630 kg/(m^2·s),a heat flux between 9 and 64 kW/m^2,and a saturation pressure between 0.24 and 0.63 MPa,under the constant heat flux heating mode. It is found that the effect of mass flow rate on boiling heat transfer is related to heat flux,and that with the increase of heat flux,the effect can only be efficient in higher vapor quality region. The effects of heat flux and saturation pressure on boiling heat transfer are related to a threshold vapor quality,and the value will gradually decrease with the increase of heat flux or saturation pressure. Based on these analyses,a new correlation is proposed to predict the boiling heat transfer coefficient of refrigerant R134 a in the mini-channels under the experimental conditions.

Mechanism of Calcium Carbonate Scale Deposition under Subcooled Flow Boiling Conditions

Fouling of heat transfer surfaces during subcooled flow boiling is a frequent engineering problem in process industries. It has been generally observed that the deposits in such industrial systems consist mainly of calcium carbonate （CaCO3）, which has inverse solubility characteristics. This investigation focused on the mechanism to control deposition and the morphology of crystalline deposits. A series of experiments were carried out at different surface and bulk temperatures, fluid velocities and salt ion concentrations. It is shown that the deposition rate is controlled by different mechanism in the range of experimental parameters, depending on salt ion concentration. At higher ion concentration, the fouling rate increases linearly with surface temperature and the effect of flow velocity on deposition rate is quite strong, suggesting that mass diffusion controls the fouling process. On the contrary, at lower ion concentration, the fouling rate increases exponentially with surface temperature and is independent of the velocity, illustrating that surface reaction controls the fouling process. By analysis of the morphology of scale, two types of crystal （calcite and aragonite） are formed. The lower the temperature and ion concentration, the longer the induction period and the higher the percentage of calcite nreciDitated.

Experimental study on convective boiling heat transfer in narrow-gap annulus tubes

Since convective boiling or highly subcooled single-phase forced convection in micro-channels is an effective cooling mechanism with a wide range of applications, more experimental and theoretical studies are re- quired to explain and verify the forced convection heat transfer phenomenon in narrow channels. In this experimental study, we model the convective boiling behavior of water with low latent heat substance Freon 113 (R-113), with the purpose of saving power consumption and visualizing experiments. Both heat transfer and pressure drop characteris- tics were measured in subcooled and saturated concentric narrow gap forced convection boiling. Data were obtained to qualitatively identify the effects of gap size, pressure, flow rate and wall superheat on boiling regimes and the tran- sition between various regimes. Some significant differences from unconfined forced convection boiling were found, and also, the flow patterns in narrow vertical annulus tubes have been studied quantitatively.

Computational analysis of the flow of pseudoplastic power-law fluids in a microchannel plate

The flow of pseudoplastic power-law fluids with different flow indexes at a microchannel plate was studied using computational fluid dynamic simulation.The velocity distribution along the microchannel plate and especially in the microchannel slits,flow pattern along the outlet arc and the pressure drop through the whole of microchannel plate were investigated at different power-law flow indexes.The results showed that the velocity profile in the microchannel slits for low flow index fluids was similar to the plug flow and had uniform pattern.Also the power-law fluids with lower flow indexes had lower stagnation zones near the outlet of the microchannel plate.The pressure drop through the microchannel plate showed huge differences between the fluids.The most interesting result was that the pressure drops for power-law fluids were very smaller than that of Newtonian fluids.In addition,the heat transfer of the fluids through the microchannel with different channel numbers in a wide range of Reynolds number was investigated.For power-law fluid with flow index(n=0.4),the Nusselt number increases continuously as the number of channels increases.The results highlight the potential use of using pseudoplastic fluids in the microheat exchangers which can lower the pressure drop and increase the heat transfer efficiency.

Experimental investigation on boiling heat transfer characteristics of Al_2O_3-water nanofluids in swirl microchannels subjected to an acceleration force

Experiments were carried out to investigate the boiling heat transfer characteristics of Al_2O_3-water nanofluids in swirl microchannels under terrestrial gravity and acceleration fields. A centrifuge with a two-meter long rotational arm was used to simulate the acceleration magnitude up to 9 g and three various acceleration directions. Three test sections with different geometric parameters were applied. The volume concentration of Al_2O_3 nanoparticles with an average diameter of 13 nm was varied from 0.07% to 0.1%. The mass flow rate and vapor quality were in ranges of 3–6 kg/h and 0.4–1.0%, respectively. The effects of the mass flow rate, microchannel aspect ratio,vapor quality, nanoparticle volume concentration, and acceleration direction and magnitude were analyzed in a systematic manner. Experimental results showed that the acceleration direction and magnitude had significant influences on the boiling heat transfer. The heat transfer under configuration C was found to be superior to that under configurations A and B. Moreover, the heat transfer coefficient increased with increases of the mass flow rate and the volume concentration and decreased with the aspect ratio.

Simulation of rarefied gas flow and heat transfer in microchannels

Analysis and simulation of rarefied nitrogen gas flow and heat transfer were performed with the Knusden number ranging from 0.05 to 1.0, using the direct simulation of Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. The influences of the Kn number and the aspect ratio on the gas temperature and wall heat flux in the microchannels were studied parametrically. The total and local heat fluxes of the microchannel walls varying with the channel inlet velocities were also investigated in detail. It was found that the Kn number and the aspect ratio greatly influence the heat transfer performance of microchannels, and both the channel inlet and outlet have higher heat fluxes while the heat flux in the middle part of channels is very low. It is also found that the inlet free stream flow velocity has small affect on the wall total heat flux while it changes the distribution of local heat flux.