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Effect of hydraulic diameter on flow boiling in rectangular microchannels

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Abstract

An experimental study is conducted to investigate the effect of hydraulic diameter on the saturated flow boiling characteristics of deionized water in parallel rectangular microchannels. Experiments have been performed for the mass fluxes of 51, 65, 78 and 93 kg m−2 s−1, and the hydraulic diameters of 100, 150, 200 and 250 μm. The wall heat flux ranges from 35.9 to 105.6 kW m−2. To eliminate the effect of aspect ratio and to address clearly the effect of hydraulic diameter, all the channels are designed with square cross section. Flow visualization studies are performed for a better understanding of the underlying physical phenomena. Effects of heat flux, mass flux and vapor quality on the heat transfer and total pressure drop have been investigated, too. It is concluded that hydraulic diameter has significant influence on both of the local two phase heat transfer coefficient and the total pressure drop.

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Abbreviations

D h :

Hydraulic diameter [m]

h tp :

Two phase heat transfer coefficient [kW m−2 K−1]

H ch :

Channel height (depth) [m]

G :

Mass flux [kg m−2 s−1]

q w :

Wall heat flux [kW m−2]

q eff :

Effective heat flux [kW m−2]

\( \dot{q} \) :

Heat transfer rate applied from power supply to the test section [W]

W ch :

Channel width [m]

x e :

Vapor quality, Thermodynamic equilibrium quality

x eo :

Exit vapor quality

ΔP tot :

Total pressure drop [Pa]

ΔT sat :

Wall superheat temperature [K]

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Acknowledgements

This study is supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) with the project number 113 M408.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, 53100, Rize, Turkey

    Burak Markal

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Karadeniz Technical University, 61080, Trabzon, Turkey

    Orhan Aydin & Mete Avci

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Correspondence to Orhan Aydin.

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Markal, B., Aydin, O. & Avci, M. Effect of hydraulic diameter on flow boiling in rectangular microchannels. Heat Mass Transfer 55, 1033–1044 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-018-2482-4

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