A Visualization Study During Flow Boiling of R134a in a Horizontal Microchannel

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In this paper, the experimental flow boiling visualization results of a microchannel are presented and discussed. A series of visualization experiments have been conducted in a horizontal, circular, uniformly heated microchannel, to record the two-phase flow patterns evolved during the boiling process and to study the ebullition process. A high speed camera (REDLAKE HG50LE) with a maximum of 100000 fps together with tungsten lights was used to capture the images along the test section. Microchannel was made of circular fused silica tube having an internal diameter of 0.781 mm and a uniformly heated length of 191 mm. Outside of the test tube was coated with a thin, electrically conductive layer of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) for direct heating of the test section. Refrigerant R134a was used as working fluid and experiments were performed at two different system pressures corresponding to saturation temperatures of 25 °C and 30 °C. Mass flux was varied from 100 kg/m2 s to 400 kg/m2 s and heat flux ranged from 5 kW/m2 to 45 kW/m2. Visualization results show that the bubble growth is restricted by the tube diameter which results in very short existence of isolated bubbly flow regime except essentially restricted to a very short length of test tube. Flow patterns observed along the length were: Isolated bubble, elongated bubble, slug flow, semi annular and annular flow. Rigorous boiling and increased coalescence rates were observed with increase in heat flux. Bubble frequency was observed to increase with both heat and mass flux. A comparison with our previous flow boiling visualization studies, carried out for a test tube of 1.33 mm internal diameter, shows that the number of active nucleation sites is less while the bubble frequency is higher for the current study. Mean bubble length and bubble velocity during elongated bubble flow pattern have also been calculated from the images obtained during the tests.