Review: General Issues and Correlations for Predicting Flow Boiling Heat Transfer Coefficients in Micro-Scale Channels

Abstract

A review study was performed for basic heat transfer mechanism and quantitative analysis of correlations for flow boiling heat transfer in micro-scale channels. Several criteria for determining threshold diameter for micro-scale channels were discussed and the concept of confinement number was commented. The distinctive feature of flow boiling in micro-scale channels were considered and it was found out that the effect of the heat flux, latent heat, viscous force, surface tension, and inertial force was more significant. Important dimensionless parameters were summarized and it was pointed out that the boiling number, capillary number, and Weber number could be expected to play important roles at flow boiling in micro-scale channels. 17 correlations for flow boiling in micro-scale channels were reviewed in this study, and they were categorized by three types of correlations such as an equivalent Nusselt number correlation, a correlation with superposition of nucleate and convection boiling mechanism, and a flow pattern-based correlation. The predicted values by the correlations were compared with 536 experimental data from four different literatures and a correlation with smallest prediction errors was found. Some correlations showed distinct trends of convection heat transfer coefficient (h) change with respect to the variation of vapor quality. The trends are categorized by three trends such as noticeable increase of h with the increase of vapor quality and significant continuous decrease after dryout point, minor increase and decrease or decrease and increase of h, and gradual and continuous decrease of h with the increase of vapor quality. For each trend of h change, recommendable correlations and their basic equation forms were proposed to compare the prediction results with experimental data or to develop a new correlation by modifying existing correlations.