Heat Transfer Characteristics during Boiling of Immiscible Liquids Flowing in Narrow Rectangular Heated Channels

Abstract

The use of immiscible liquids for cooling of surfaces with high heat generation density is proposed based on the experimental verification of its superior cooling characteristics in fundamental systems of pool boiling and flow boiling in a tube. For the purpose of practical applications, however, heat transfer characteristics due to flow boiling in narrow rectangular channels with different small gap sizes need to be investigated. The immiscible liquids employed here are FC72 and water, and the gap size is varied as 2, 1, and 0.5 mm between parallel rectangular plates of 30 mm × 175 mm, where one plate is heated. To evaluate the effect of gap size, the heat transfer characteristics are compared at the same inlet velocity. The generation of large flattened bubbles in a narrow gap results in two opposite trends of the heat transfer enhancement due to thin liquid film evaporation and of the deterioration due to the extension of dry patch in the liquid film. The situation is the same as that observed for pure liquids. The latter negative effect is emphasized for extremely small gap sizes if the flow rate ratio of more-volatile liquid to the total is not reduced. The addition of small flow rate of less-volatile liquid can increase the critical heat flux (CHF) of pure more-volatile liquid, while the surface temperature increases at the same time and assume the values between those for more-volatile and less-volatile liquids. By the selection of small flow rate ratio of more-volatile liquid, the surface temperature of pure less-volatile liquid can be decreased without reducing high CHF inherent in the less-volatile liquid employed. The trend of heat transfer characteristics for flow boiling of immiscible mixtures in narrow channels is more sensitive to the composition compared to the flow boiling in a round tube.