Experimental study of flow boiling heat transfer in a rectangular minichannel by using various enhanced heating surface

Abstract

The paper presents the results of flow boiling heat transfer in a horizontal minichannel, 1 mm deep, 40 mm wide and 360 mm long. The heating element for FC-72 which flows along the minichannel is a thin enhanced alloy. It is possible to observe both surfaces of the minichannel through an opening covered with two glass panes. The first one allows observing changes in the temperature of the foil surface due to liquid crystal thermography. The second allows the identification of the two-phase flow patterns. The experiments employed the enhanced heating foil with various depressions, distributed diversely on the surface. Two types of enhanced heating surfaces: with micro re-entrant cavities evenly distributed, and with mini re-entrant cavities unevenly distributed, were used for the purpose of the investigation. The main objective of the paper is to determine the void fraction for cross-sections of selected images for increasing heat fluxes supplied to the heating surface. The results are presented as the void fraction dependence along the minichannel length for the selected cross-sections. Exemplary boiling curves derived from data obtained from initial increasing and subsequent decreasing the heat flux supplied to the foil are also presented. The investigation has been intended to determine the correlation for the calculations of the Nusselt number as a function of variable parameters.