Enhanced Subcooled Flow Boiling Heat Transfer in Microchannel With Piranha Pin Fin

Abstract

An experimental study on subcooled flow boiling with engineering fluid HFE-7000 in a microchannel fitted with piranha pin fins (PPFs) is presented. Heat fluxes of up to 735 W/cm2 were achieved and mass fluxes ranged from 618 kg/m2s to 2569 kg/m2 s. It was found that the flow boiling heat transfer was significantly enhanced with PPFs. The heat transfer coefficient with flow boiling was double the corresponding single-phase flow. Correlations for two-phase heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in the nucleate flow boiling regime were developed based on the boiling, Weber, and Jakob numbers. The onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) and the critical heat flux (CHF) conditions were determined through visualization and was typically initiated from the last row of fins where temperatures were highest and flow rates lowest.