Flattening of boiling curves at post-CHF regime in the presence of localized electrostatic fields

Abstract

We studied two-phase cooling heat transfer enhancement from a heated disk through falling jets of dielectric fluid, HFE7100, in the presence of electrostatic fields. The field is established between the jet and the grounded target and the boiling curves are obtained. The boiling curves showed surprising deviation from typical boiling curves at post-critical heat flux (CHF) regimes. In the absence of electric field, the heat flux always falls suddenly as CHF regime reaches. The CHF phenomenon is a catastrophic phenomenon accompanying with overshooting the surface temperate. However, counter-intuitively, here we demonstrated that applying an appropriate electrostatic field, the curves became flat at post-CHF regimes and critical heat flux regime can be operated at a wide range of superheats. A hypothetical explanation is proposed to rationalize the flattened boiling curve observations at the CHF regime. Flattening of boiling curves in the presence of electric field promotes reliable operation of cooling device at CHF regime.