Time-averaged and transient pressure drop for flow boiling with saturated inlet conditions

Abstract

This study explores flow boiling pressure drop of FC-72 in a rectangular channel subjected to single-side and double-sided heating for vertical upflow, vertical downflow, and horizontal flow with positive inlet quality. Analysis of temporal records of pressure transducer signals is used to assess the influences of orientation, mass velocity, inlet quality, heat flux, and single-sided versus double-sided heating on magnitude of pressure drop oscillations, while fast Fourier transforms of the same records are used to capture dominant frequencies of oscillations. Time-averaged pressure drop results are also presented, with trends focusing on the competing influences of body force and flow inertia, and particular attention paid to the impact of vapor content at the test section inlet and the rate of vapor generation within the test section on pressure drop. Several popular pressure drop correlations are evaluated against the present pressure drop database. Predictions are presented for subsets of the database corresponding to low and high ranges of inlet quality and mass velocity. The correlations are ranked based on mean absolute error, overall data trends, and data spread. While most show general success in capturing the data trends, they do so with varying degrees of accuracy.