Flow Boiling of Coolant (HFE-7000) Inside Structured and Plain Wall Microchannels

Abstract

Flow boiling was experimentally studied using coolant HFE-7000 for two types of parallel microchannels: a plain-wall microchannel and a microchannel with structured reentrant cavities on the side walls. Flow morphologies, boiling inceptions, heat transfer coefficients, and critical heat fluxes were obtained and studied for mass fluxes ranging from G=164 kg/m2 s to G=3025 kg/m2 s and mass qualities (energy definition) ranging from x=−0.25 to x=1. Comparisons of the performance of the enhanced and plain-wall microchannels were carried out. It was found that reentrant cavities were effective in reducing the superheat at the onset of nucleate boiling and increasing the heat transfer coefficient. However, they did not seem to increase the critical heat flux.