Pool Boiling of Water on Surfaces with Open Microchannels

Abstract

Boiling, as the most efficient type of convective heat transfer, is an area of interest in many fields of industry and science. Many works have focused on improving the heat transfer efficiency of boiling by altering the physical and chemical properties of surfaces by using different technological processes in their fabrication. This paper presents experimental investigations into pool boiling on enhanced surfaces with open microchannels. The material of the fabricated surface was copper. Parallel microchannels made by machining were about 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 mm wide, 0.2 to 0.5 mm deep, and spaced with a pitch equal to twice the width of the microchannel. The experiments were carried out in water at atmospheric pressure. The experimental results obtained showed an increase in the heat flux and the heat transfer coefficient for surfaces with microchannels. The maximum (critical) heat flux was 2188 kW/m2, and the heat transfer coefficient was 392 kW/m2K. An improvement in the maximum heat flux of more than 245% and 2.5–4.9 times higher heat transfer coefficient was obtained for the heat flux range of 992–2188 kW/m2 compared to the smooth surface. Bubble formation and growth cycle in the microchannel were presented. Two static computational models were proposed to determine the bubble departure diameter.