Induced Convective Enhancement of the Critical Heat Flux From Partially Heated Horizontal Flat Plates in Saturated Pool Boiling

Abstract

Current developments in high-power electronics and other energy-intensive applications have accentuated the need for higher performance heat transfer. Nucleate boiling heat transfer is one of the most effective modes of heat transfer, with pool boiling being perhaps the simplest type of passive two-phase cooling. Unfortunately, the maximum heat flux attainable in nucleate pool boiling is limited by the relatively low critical heat flux at the onset of film boiling. Several methods have been suggested to enhance the critical heat flux. In particular, Costello et al. showed that the critical heat flux in saturated pool boiling could be enhanced by simply increasing the width of the pool while maintaining a fixed heater size. Elkassabgi and Lienhard examined the combined effects of immersion depth and pool size on the critical heat flux for a small-diameter horizontal cylinder in saturated pool boiling. No similar study for flat plate heaters appears in the literature. While as noted above the effect of heater appears in the literature. While as noted above the effect of heater appears in the literature. While as noted above the effect of heater size and immersion depth have been studied independently, no systematic investigation of the combined effects has been conductedmore » previously. This paper presents the results of such a study.« less