Experimental investigation on flow boiling characteristics in zigzag channels under different sloshing conditions

Abstract

In order to reveal the effects of sloshing condition on the performance of the printed circuit heat exchangers (PCHEs), the flow boiling heat transfer characteristics in PCHEs with zigzag channels were investigated experimentally under different sloshing conditions adjusted by 6-DOF (six degrees of freedom) moving platform. The results show that, among the six sloshing types, rolling and heaving movements have significant effects. Rolling conditions always deteriorate the flow boiling heat transfer in PCHEs, with a maximal deterioration of 14.0%; the deterioration appears mainly in annular flows and worsens with the increase of the vapor quality, due to the non-uniform gas-liquid distribution in the lateral direction of the channel inlets. Heaving conditions always enhance the flow boiling heat transfer in PCHEs, with a maximal enhancement of 22.8% corresponding to the critical point of flow pattern transformation from slug to annular flow. Correlations for predicting the effects from rolling and heaving conditions are proposed with deviations within ±10%. The results will provide new data and correlations for optimizing the heat exchangers to avoid performance deterioration in FLNG platforms.