Experimental study on critical heat flux in bilaterally heated narrow annuli

Critical heat flux (CHF) experiments using deionized water as working fluid have been conducted in a range of pressure from 0.6 to 4.2 MPa, mass flow velocity from 60 to 130 kg/m² s and wall heat flux from 10 to 90 kW/m² for vertical narrow annuli with annular gap sizes of 0.95 and 1.5 mm. We found that the CHF, occurring only on the inside tube, or on the outside tube or on both tubes of the annular channel, depends on the heat flux ratio between surfaces of the outside and inside tubes. The CHF, occurring on the surface of the inside tube, reaches the maximum value under the pressure of 2.3 MPa while it occurring on the surface of the outside tube keeps increasing with the increase of the pressure. The CHF, occurring on the inside or outside tubes, increases with the increase of the mass flow velocity and the annular gap size; and decreases with the increase of critical quality and the other tube wall heat flux. Empirical correlations, which agree quite well with the experimental data, have been developed to predict the CHF occurring on surfaces of the inside or outside tubes of the narrow annular channel on the conditions of low pressure and low flow.     

Experimental study of critical heat flux enhancement during forced convective flow boiling of nanofluid on a short heated surface

Enhancements of nucleate boiling critical heat flux (CHF) using nanofluids in a pool boiling are well-known. Considering importance of flow boiling heat transfer in various practical applications, an experimental study on CHF enhancements of nanofluids under convective flow conditions was performed. A rectangular flow channel with 10-mm width and 5-mm height was used. A 10 mm-diameter disk-type copper surface, heated by conduction heat transfer, was placed at the bottom surface of the flow channel as a test heater. Aqueous nanofluids with alumina nanoparticles at the concentration of 0.01% by volume were investigated. The experimental results showed that the nanofluid flow boiling CHF was distinctly enhanced under the forced convective flow conditions compared to that in pure water. Subsequent to the boiling experiments, the heater surfaces were examined with scanning electron microscope and by measuring contact angle. The surface characterization results suggested that the flow boiling CHF enhancement in nanofluids is mostly caused by the nanoparticles deposition of the heater surface during vigorous boiling of nanofluids and the subsequent wettability enhancements.     

Theoretical analyses on boiling critical heat flux with porous media

Porous media has been widely applied to enhance boiling heat transfer in industry, especially for increasing the value of critical heat flux (CHF). Two cases were considered in the paper: boiling within porous bed and boiling above on porous coatings. For boiling within porous bed, simplified Rayleigh–Taylor stability was analyzed and parametric effects of porous media on boiling critical heat flux were revealed. For boiling above on porous coatings, a simple new critical heat flux model was proposed basing on the analysis of liquid film stability and parametric effect of porous coatings on CHF was elaborated.     

Macro-to-microchannel transition in two-phase flow: Part 2 - Flow boiling heat transfer and critical heat flux

This part of the paper presents the current experimental flow boiling heat transfer and CHF data acquired for R134a, R236fa and R245fa in single, horizontal channels of 1.03, 2.20 and 3.04 mm diameters over a range of experimental conditions. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of channel confinement, heat flux, flow pattern, saturation temperature, subcooling and working fluid properties on the two-phase heat transfer and CHF. Experimentally, it was observed that the flow boiling heat transfer coefficients are a significant function of the type of two-phase flow pattern. Furthermore, the monotonically increasing heat transfer coefficients at higher vapor qualities, corresponding to annular flow, signifies convective boiling as the dominant heat transfer mechanism in these small scale channels. The decreasing heat transfer trend at low vapor qualities in the slug flow (coalescing bubble dominated regime) was indicative of thin film evaporation with intermittent dry patch formation and rewetting at these conditions. The coalescing bubble flow heat transfer data were well predicted by the three-zone model when setting the dryout thickness to the measured surface roughness, indicating for the first time a roughness effect on the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient in this regime. The CHF data acquired during the experimental campaign indicated the influence of saturation temperature, mass velocity, channel confinement and fluid properties on CHF but no influence of inlet subcooling for the conditions tested. When globally comparing the CHF values for R134a in the 0.51-3.04 mm diameter channels, a peak in CHF peak was observed lying in between the 0.79 (Co ≈ 0.99) and 1.03 (Co ≈ 0.78) mm channels. A new CHF correlation has been proposed involving the confinement number, Co that is able to predict CHF for R134a, R236fa and R245fa in single-circular channels, rectangular multichannels and split flow rectangular multichannels. In summary, the present flow boiling and CHF trends point to a macro-to-microscale transition as indicated by the results presented in Ong and Thome (2011) [1].     

Characteristics of the critical heat flux for downward flow in a vertical tube at low flow rate and low pressure conditions

The characteristics of the critical heat flux (CHF) for downward flow were studied experimentally with an Inconel 600 circular tube test section in a water test loop at low-flow rate (0 200 kg/m²s) and low-pressure (0.1 0.7 MPa) conditions. The attention was given to the effects of upstream conditions—upper plenum and inlet throttling. Two totally different kinds of CHF behaviors were observed. It seems appropriate to interpret them as flooding-type CHF and dryout in annular flow. The CHF in downward flow may vary from extremely unstable flow CHF as low as near the flooding CHF value to stable flow CHF as high as that of upflow, depending on the upstream conditions of the test section. The CHF correlation by Mishima and that by Weber were proposed for the presentation of the lower and upper limits of the CHF for downward flow in a vertical tube at low-flow rate and low-pressure conditions.     

Investigation of saturated critical heat flux in a single, uniformly heated microchannel

A series of tests have been performed to determine the saturated critical heat flux (CHF) in 0.5 and 0.8 mm internal diameter microchannel tubes as a function of refrigerant mass velocity, heated length, saturation temperature and inlet liquid subcooling. The tested refrigerants were R-134a and R-245fa and the heated length of microchannel was varied between 20 and 70 mm. The results show a strong dependence of CHF on mass velocity, heated length and microchannel diameter but no influence of liquid subcooling (2–15 °C) was observed. The experimental results have been compared to the well-known CHF single-channel correlation of Y. Katto and H. Ohno [An improved version of the generalized correlation of critical heat flux for the forced convective boiling in uniformly heated vertical tubes, Int. J. Heat and Mass Transfer 27 (9) (1984) 1641–1648] and the multichannel correlation of W. Qu and I. Mudawar [Measurement and correlation of critical heat flux in two-phase microchannel heat sinks, Int. J. Heat and Mass Transfer 47 (2004) 2045–2059]. The comparison shows that the correlation of Katto–Ohno predicts microchannel data with a mean absolute error of 32.8% with only 41.2% of the data falling within a ±15% error band. The correlation of Qu and Mudawar shows the same trends as the CHF data but significantly overpredicts them. Based on the present experimental data, a new microscale version of the Katto–Ohno correlation for the prediction of CHF during saturated boiling in microchannels has been proposed.     

A mechanistic critical heat flux model for subcooled flow boiling based on local bulk flow conditions

The critical heat flux (CHF) mechanisms for subcooled flow boiling are reviewed. Based on experimental observations reported by previous investigators, the authors have developed a new mechanistic CHF model for vertical subcooled flow at high pressure and high mass velocity. This model is based on the dryout of a thin liquid layer (sublayer) beneath an intermittent vapor blanket due to a Helmholtz instability at the sublayer-vapor interface. The parametric trends of CHF have been explored qualitatively and quantitatively with respect to variations in pressure, mass velocity, subcooling and tube diameter. Comparisons of the model predictions with experimental data for water show good agreement in the simulation of subcooled flow conditions of pressurized water reactors (PWRs).     

Enhancement of the critical heat flux in saturated pool boiling using honeycomb porous media

Enhancement of the critical heat flux in pool boiling by the attachment of a honeycomb-structured porous plate on a heated surface is investigated experimentally using water under saturated boiling conditions. As the height of the honeycomb porous plate on the heated surface decreases, the CHF increases to 2.5 MW/m², which is approximately 2.5 times that of a plain surface (1.0 MW/m²). Automatic liquid supply due to capillary action and reduction of the flow resistance for vapor escape due to the separation of liquid and vapor flow paths by the honeycomb-structure are verified to play an important role in the enhancement of the CHF. A simplified one-dimensional model for the capillary suction limit, in which the pressure drops due to liquid and vapor flow in the honeycomb porous plate balances the capillary force, is applied to predict the CHF. The calculated results are compared with the measured results.     

Towards understanding the critical heat flux for industrial applications

Understanding CHF is of an upmost importance in many industries, especially in the design and operation of boilers, nuclear power plants, cryogenic systems, etc. Due to safety issues related to the nuclear power plants, and the adaptation of CHF as the limiting criterion of power generation, it is important to understand the mechanisms of CHF relevant to nuclear systems operation. Moreover, CHF is expected to occur during transients than steady-state conditions. Therefore, knowledge of transient CHF is of great importance for the safety evaluation of nuclear reactors under transient condition. In this paper, the existing CHF experimental and modeling studies are discussed in order to understand the phenomena leading to CHF. Also, the effect of transient conditions on CHF for nuclear fuels has been evaluated.     

Evaporator critical heat flux in the double-wall artery heat pipe

The fact that heat is transferred into a heat pipe through the liquid-saturated evaporator wick gives rise to the so-called boiling limit on the heat pipe capacity. The composite nature of the double-wall artery heat pipe (DWAHP) wick structure makes the prediction of the evaporator superheat (Δ T_crit) and the critical radial heat flux (q_r) very difficult. The effective thermal conductivity of the wick, the effective radius of critical nucleation cavity, and the nucleation superheat, which are important parameters for double-wall wick evaporator heat transfer, have been evaluated based on the available theoretical models. Empirical correlations are used to corroborate the experimental results of the 2 m DWAHP. A heat choke mounted on the evaporator made it possible to measure the evaporator external temperatures, which were not measured in the previous tests. The high values of the measured evaporator wall temperatures are explainable with the assumption of a thin layer of vapor blanket at the inner heating surface. It has been observed that partial saturation of the wick (lean evaporator) causes the capillary limit to drop even though it may be good for efficient convective heat transfer through the wick. The 2 m long copper-water heat pipe had a peak performance of 1850 W at 23 W/cm² with a horizontal orientation.     

Nucleate boiling and critical heat flux of HFE-7100 in horizontal narrow spaces

The pool boiling heat transfer and critical heat flux CHF of saturated HFE-7100 at atmospheric pressure on a confined smooth copper surface were experimentally studied. The horizontal upward boiling surface was confined by a face-to-face parallel unheated surface. We analysed the effects obtained by changing the diameter of the unheated surface and the gap between the boiling surface and the adiabatic surface. The gap values investigated were s = 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.5 mm. To confine the circular boiling surface (d = 30 mm), two different Plexiglas discs were used: one with a diameter D = 30 mm, equal to that of the copper boiling surface, and the other with a diameter D = 60 mm, equal to that of the overall test section support. For each configuration, boiling curves were obtained up to the thermal crisis. For both configurations, it was observed that, at low wall superheat, the effect of confinement was not significant if Bo > 1, while for Bo ? 1 the heat transfer coefficient increased as the channel width s decreased. By contrast, at high wall superheat, a drastic reduction in both heat transfer and CHF was seen when the channel width s decreased; this reduction was less pronounced when the smaller confinement disc (D = 30 mm) was used. CHF data were also compared with the values predicted by literature correlations.     

Status of prediction methods for critical heat fluxes in mini and microchannels

Saturated critical heat flux (CHF) is an important issue during flow boiling in mini and microchannels. To determine the best prediction method available in the literature, 2996 data points from 19 different laboratories have been collected since 1958. The database includes nine different fluids (R-134a, R-245fa, R-236fa, R-123, R-32, R-113, nitrogen, CO₂ and water) for a wide range of experimental conditions. This database has been compared to 6 different correlations and 1 theoretically based model. For predicting the non-aqueous fluids, the theoretical model by Revellin and Thome [Revellin, R., Thome, J.R., 2008. A theoretical model for the prediction of the critical heat flux in heated microchannels. Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 51, 1216–1225] is the best method. It predicts 86% of the CHF data for non-aqueous fluids within a 30% error band. The data for water are best predicted by the correlation by Zhang et al. [Zhang, W., Hibiki, T., Mishima, K., Mi, Y., 2006. Correlation of critical heat flux for flow boiling of water in minichannels. Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 49, 1058–1072]. This method predicts 83% of the CHF data for water within a 30% error band. Some suggestions have also been proposed in this paper for the future studies.     

Experimental research on transient heat transfer in sand

In order to examine if the heat conduction in porous material behaves like a wave as claimed by other researchers, experiments on transient heat transfer is conducted in casting sand. The results show that the heat propagation can be described neither by wave nor by diffusion model. The CV-wave concept is discussed and challenged according to the experimental results in the entire transient stage, including the transient response of temperature and the response curve of penetration-depth versus penetration-time.     

Experimental investigation of heat transfer in vertical upward and downward supercritical CO2 flow in a circular tube

An experimental investigation of turbulent heat transfer in vertical upward and downward supercritical CO₂ flow was conducted in a circular tube with an inner diameter of 4.5 mm. The experiments were performed for bulk fluid temperatures from 29 to 115 °C, pressures from 74.6 to 102.6 bar, local wall heat fluxes from 38 to 234 kW/m², and mass fluxes from 208 to 874 kg/m² s. At a moderate wall heat flux and low mass flux, the wall temperature had a noticeable peak value for vertical upward flow, but increased monotonically along the flow direction without a peak value for downward flow. The ratios of the experimental Nusselt number to the value obtained from a reference correlation were compared with Bo^* and q⁺ distributions to observe the buoyancy and flow-acceleration effects on heat transfer. In the experimental range of this study, the flow acceleration predominantly affected the heat-transfer phenomena. Based on an analysis of the shear-stress distribution in the turbulent boundary layer and the significant variation of the specific heat across the turbulent boundary layer, a new heat-transfer correlation for vertical upward and downward flow of supercritical pressurized fluid was developed; this correlation agreed with various experimental datasets within ±30%.     

Effect of Hall current on MHD natural convection flow from vertical permeable fiat plate with uniform surface heat flux

The effect of the Hall current on the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) natural convection flow from a vertical permeable flat plate with a uniform heat flux is analyzed in the presence of a transverse magnetic field.It is assumed that the induced magnetic field is negligible compared with the imposed magnetic field.The boundary layer equations are reduced to a suitable form by employing the free variable formulation (FVF) and the stream function formulation (SFF).The parabolic equations obtained from FVF are numerically integrated with the help of a straightforward finite difference method.Moreover,the nonsimilar system of equations obtained from SFF is solved by using a local nonsimilarity method,for the whole range of the local transpiration parameter ζ.Consideration is also given to the regions where the local transpiration parameter ζis small or large enough.However,in these particular regions,solutions are acquired with the aid of a regular perturbation method.The effects of the magnetic field M and the Hall parameter m on the local skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number coefficient are graphically shown for smaller values of the Prandtl number Pr (=0.005,0.01,0.05).Furthermore,the velocity and temperature profiles are also drawn from various values of the local transpiration parameterζ.     

Effect of Hall current on MHD natural convection flow from vertical permeable flat plate with uniform surface heat flux

The effect of the Hall current on the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) natural convection flow from a vertical permeable flat plate with a uniform heat flux is analyzed in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. It is assumed that the induced magnetic field is negligible compared with the imposed magnetic field. The boundary layer equations are reduced to a suitable form by employing the free variable formulation (FVF) and the stream function formulation (SFF). The parabolic equations obtained from FVF are numerically integrated with the help of a straightforward finite difference method. Moreover, the nonsimilar system of equations obtained from SFF is solved by using a local nonsimilarity method, for the whole range of the local transpiration parameter ζ. Consideration is also given to the regions where the local transpiration parameter ζ is small or large enough. However, in these particular regions, solutions are acquired with the aid of a regular perturbation method. The effects of the magnetic field M and the Hall parameter m on the local skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number coefficient are graphically shown for smaller values of the Prandtl number Pr (= 0.005, 0.01, 0.05). Furthermore, the velocity and temperature profiles are also drawn from various values of the local transpiration parameter ζ.     

Effect of Hall current on MHD natural convection flow from vertical permeable flat plate with uniform surface heat flux

The effect of the Hall current on the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) natural convection flow from a vertical permeable flat plate with a uniform heat flux is analyzed in the presence of a transverse magnetic field.It is assumed that the induced magnetic field is negligible compared with the imposed magnetic field.The boundary layer equations are reduced to a suitable form by employing the free variable formulation (FVF) and the stream function formulation (SFF).The parabolic equations obtained from FVF are numer...     

On natural convection from a vertical plate with a prescribed surface heat flux in porous media

This paper presents a theoretical and numerical investigation of the natural convection boundary-layer along a vertical surface, which is embedded in a porous medium, when the surface heat flux varies as (1 +x ²)), where is a constant andx is the distance along the surface. It is shown that for > -1/2 the solution develops from a similarity solution which is valid for small values ofx to one which is valid for large values ofx. However, when -1/2 no similarity solutions exist for large values ofx and it is found that there are two cases to consider, namely < -1/2 and = -1/2. The wall temperature and the velocity at large distances along the plate are determined for a range of values of .Notation g Gravitational acceleration - k Thermal conductivity of the saturated porous medium - K Permeability of the porous medium - l Typical streamwise length - q _w Uniform heat flux on the wall - Ra Rayleigh number, =gK(q _w /k)l/(v) - T Temperature - Too Temperature far from the plate - u, v Components of seepage velocity in the x and y directions - x, y Cartesian coordinates - Thermal diffusivity of the fluid saturated porous medium - The coefficient of thermal expansion - An undetermined constant - Porosity of the porous medium - Similarity variable, =y(1+x ) ^/3/x ^1/3 - A preassigned constant - Kinematic viscosity - Nondimensional temperature, =(T – T )Ra^1/3 k/qw - Similarity variable, = =y(log_e x)^1/3/x ^2/3 - Similarity variable, =y/x ^2/3 - Stream function     

Natural convection of nanofluid over vertical plate embedded in porous medium: prescribed surface heat flux

The aim of the present paper is to analyze the natural convection heat and mass transfer of nanofluids over a vertical plate embedded in a saturated Darcy porous medium subjected to surface heat and nanoparticle fluxes. To carry out the numerical solution, two steps are performed. The governing partial differential equations are firstly simplified into a set of highly coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations by appropriate similarity variables, and then numerically solved by the finite difference method. The obtained similarity solution depends on four non-dimensional parameters, i.e., the Brownian motion parameter (N _b), the Buoyancy ratio (N _r), the thermophoresis parameter (N _t), and the Lewis number (Le). The variations of the reduced Nusselt number and the reduced Sherwood number with N _b and N _t for various values of Le and N _r are discussed in detail. Simulation results depict that the increase in N _b, N _t, or N _r decreases the reduced Nusselt number. An increase in the Lewis number increases both of the reduced Nusselt number and the Sherwood number. The results also reveal that the nanoparticle concentration boundary layer thickness is much thinner than those of the thermal and hydrodynamic boundary layers.     

Critical heat flux and nucleate boiling on several heterogeneous wetting surfaces: Controlled hydrophobic patterns on a hydrophilic substrate

We used a heating surface composed of a hydrophilic substrate with hydrophobic dots to characterize the effect of spatially-different surface characteristics on critical heat flux (CHF) and nucleate boiling. To ascertain important surface factors that control CHF and boiling on heterogeneous wetting surfaces, we adjusted the hydrophobic dot diameter and the relative pitch between adjacent dots. Based on the dynamics of bubbles on hydrophobic dots, we analyze the trend of CHF on differently-fabricated heterogeneous wetting surfaces. CHFs on heterogeneous wetting surfaces were strongly dependent on ratio R of the area covered by hydrophobic dots to the heated area, but independent on the diameter of hydrophobic dots and the pitch distance. The improvement of boiling heat transfer (BHT) varied according to the conditions, and appeared to be related to the diameter, pitch distance and the number of hydrophobic dots, but the effect of R on BHT was negligible. Based on this study, we propose optimized conditions of a hydrophobic patterned surface. To sustain high CHF of a hydrophilic surface and high BHT of a hydrophobic surface, numerous micron-size hydrophobic dots should be fabricated with small R.