Formation Mechanism and Characteristics of a Liquid Microlayer in Microchannel Boiling System

Abstract

Experiments were performed using the laser extinction method to measure the thickness of the liquid film formed by growing flattened bubbles in a microchannel for gap sizes of 0.5 mm, 0.3 mm, and 0.15 mm. Water, ethanol, and toluene were used as test fluids. A high-speed camera was also used to simultaneously measure the bubble growth process. It was confirmed that the gap size and bubble forefront velocity determined the initial microlayer thickness. The variation trend of the microlayer thickness relative to the velocity of the interface was divided into two regions: region I, where the velocity is small and the thickness increases linearly with increasing velocity, and region II, where the thickness is almost constant or decreased slightly with increasing velocity. Furthermore, a nondimensional correlation for investigating the effects of test materials and gap sizes on microlayer thickness is presented. An analysis of the results showed that the boundaries of the two regions correspond to a Weber number of approximately 110, and in the region where the Weber number was smaller than 110, the thickness of the microlayer was thinner for the liquid whose value of ρ0.62ν0.42σ−0.62 was relatively small. However, for the region where Weber number was larger than 110, the smaller the kinematic viscosity of the liquid, the thinner the microlayer became.