Single - phase flow and flow boiling of water in rectangular metallic microchannels

Abstract

This experimental research aims at investigating the single-phase flow heat transfer and friction factor, flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop, and flow visualisation in microchannels using de-ionized water. In the literature, many studies failed to explain the effect of aspect ratio on the single-phase and two-phase flow heat transfer rate and pressure drop. Because the channel aspect ratios and hydraulic diameters were varied together in those studies. Also, there is a discrepancy between past studies and the conventional theory for the flow boiling heat transfer characteristics. Accordingly, the objectives of this research can be listed as follows: (i) modifying the existing experimental facility to perform single-phase and two-phase flow heat transfer and pressure drop and two-phase flow pattern visualization experiments in microchannels, (ii) clarifying the fundamental aspects of flow boiling in micro passages, (iii) investigating the aspect ratio, heat flux, mass flux and vapour quality effects on flow patterns, heat transfer rate and pressure drop in single-phase and two-phase flow, (iv) comparing the obtained results with heat transfer and pressure drop correlations and flow pattern maps available in the literature. Consequently, the pre-existing experimental facility was modified in the current research by changing the pre-heaters, flowmeter and piping in order to achieve the goals of this study. Four copper rectangular microchannels were designed and manufactured. Three microchannel test sections having the same hydraulic diameter and length but different aspect ratios were investigated to reveal the effect of aspect ratio on the single-phase and two-phase flow heat transfer rate and pressure drop. The surface roughness of each microchannel was also examined. It was found that the surface roughnesses of all microchannels are similar. Moreover, an additional microchannel test section was used to examine the effect of heated length on the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. The single-phase flow results demonstrated that the channel aspect ratio has no influence on the friction factor and heat transfer rate for the tested microchannels and experimental range. In the flow boiling experiments, bubbly, bubbly/slug, slug, churn and annular flow regimes were observed in the tested microchannels. The channel aspect ratio effect was found to be small on the observed flow patterns. The experimental flow patterns were predicted well by the flow pattern map proposed by Galvis and Culham (2012) except for the slug flow regime. The flow pattern maps of Sobierska et al. (2006) and Harirchian and Garimella (2009) reasonably predicted the experimental flow pattern data. The flow boiling heat transfer results showed that the prevailing heat transfer mechanism is nucleate boiling for the low and medium heat flux inputs. On the other hand, the dominant heat transfer mechanism is unclear at the high heat flux inputs while smaller aspect ratio microchannel has better heat transfer performance for low and medium heat flux inputs. However, at high heat flux inputs the channel aspect ratio effect was found to be insignificant on the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient. The experimental flow boiling heat transfer coefficient data were reasonably predicted by the correlations of Sun and Mishima (2009), Li and Wu (2010) and Mahmoud and Karayiannis (2011) from the literature. The flow boiling pressure drop characteristics were also examined in the tested microchannels. Outcome of the experiments consistently indicated a highly linear trend between the increasing flow boiling pressure drop and the heat and mass flux. Also, the flow boiling pressure drop increased with the increase in vapour quality. The effect of channel aspect ratio on the flow boiling pressure drop was also assessed. It was found that when the channel aspect ratio decreased, the flow boiling pressure drop increased. The experimental flow boiling pressure drop data were compared to correlations from the literature. Mishima and Hibiki (1996), Yu et al. (2002) and Zhang et al. (2010) correlations reasonably predicted the experimental flow boiling pressure drop results.