Heat Transfer Mechanism and Flow Pattern During Flow Boiling of Water in a Vertical Narrow Channel: Experimental Results

Abstract

Experimental investigations on flow boiling phenomena in a vertical narrow rectangular microchannel with the hydraulic diameter dh = 0.48 mm were carried out. The experiments were performed under fluid-inlet subcooling conditions with deionised and degassed water for different mass fluxes. Investigations on pressure drop and heat transfer during single-and two-phase flow have been carried out. Moreover, flow visualisation of the two-phase flow patterns along the channel was performed using a digital high-speed video camera. The present work outlines local heat transfer coefficients for three mass fluxes (200, 700 and 1500 kg/m2s) and heat fluxes (30–110, 35–150 and 65–200 kW/m2, respectively) during two-phase flow. The fluid temperature at the inlet was about 50 °C what corresponds to inlet subcooling, depending on flow pressure conditions, from 34 °C to 57 °C. The visual observations were used to obtain a better insight about the heat transfer mechanism.