IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i20p6641-d655948.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Hydraulic Diameter on Flow Boiling within Single Rectangular Microchannels and Comparison of Heat Sink Configuration of a Single and Multiple Microchannels

Author

Listed:
  • Konstantinos Vontas

    (Advanced Engineering Centre, School of Architecture Technology and Engineering, University of Brighton, Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4GJ, UK)

  • Manolia Andredaki

    (Advanced Engineering Centre, School of Architecture Technology and Engineering, University of Brighton, Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4GJ, UK)

  • Anastasios Georgoulas

    (Advanced Engineering Centre, School of Architecture Technology and Engineering, University of Brighton, Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4GJ, UK)

  • Nicolas Miché

    (Advanced Engineering Centre, School of Architecture Technology and Engineering, University of Brighton, Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4GJ, UK)

  • Marco Marengo

    (Advanced Engineering Centre, School of Architecture Technology and Engineering, University of Brighton, Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4GJ, UK)

Abstract

Phase change heat transfer within microchannels is considered one of the most promising cooling methods for the efficient cooling of high-performance electronic devices. However, there are still fundamental parameters, such as the effect of channel hydraulic diameter D h whose effects on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics are not clearly defined yet. The objective of the present work is to numerically investigate the first transient flow boiling characteristics from the bubble inception up to the first stages of the flow boiling regime development, in rectangular microchannels of varying hydraulic diameters, utilising an enhanced custom VOF-based solver. The solver accounts for conjugate heat transfer effects, implemented in OpenFOAM and validated in the literature through experimental results and analytical solutions. The numerical study was conducted through two different sets of simulations. In the first set, flow boiling characteristics in four single microchannels of D h = 50, 100, 150, and 200 μ m with constant channel aspect ratio of 0.5 and length of 2.4 mm were examined. Due to the different D h , the applied heat and mass flux values varied between 20 to 200 kW / m 2 and 150 to 2400 kg / m 2 s , respectively. The results of the two-phase simulations were compared with the corresponding initial single-phase stage of the simulations, and an increase of up to 37.4% on the global Nu number N u g l o b was revealed. In the second set of simulations, the effectiveness of having microchannel evaporators of single versus multiple parallel microchannels was investigated by performing and comparing simulations of a single rectangular microchannel with D h of 200 μ m and four-parallel rectangular microchannels, each having a hydraulic diameter D h of 50 μ m . By comparing the local time-averaged thermal resistance along the channels, it is found that the parallel microchannels configuration resulted in a 23.3% decrease in the average thermal resistance R ¯ l compared to the corresponding single-phase simulation stage, while the flow boiling process reduced the R ¯ l by only 5.4% for the single microchannel case. As for the developed flow regimes, churn and slug flow dominated, whereas liquid film evaporation and, for some cases, contact line evaporation were the main contributing flow boiling mechanisms.

Suggested Citation

  • Konstantinos Vontas & Manolia Andredaki & Anastasios Georgoulas & Nicolas Miché & Marco Marengo, 2021. "The Effect of Hydraulic Diameter on Flow Boiling within Single Rectangular Microchannels and Comparison of Heat Sink Configuration of a Single and Multiple Microchannels," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-23, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:20:p:6641-:d:655948
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/20/6641/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/20/6641/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emanuele Teodori & Pedro Pontes & Ana Moita & Anastasios Georgoulas & Marco Marengo & Antonio Moreira, 2017. "Sensible Heat Transfer during Droplet Cooling: Experimental and Numerical Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-27, June.
    2. Anastasios Georgoulas & Manolia Andredaki & Marco Marengo, 2017. "An Enhanced VOF Method Coupled with Heat Transfer and Phase Change to Characterise Bubble Detachment in Saturated Pool Boiling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-35, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Konstantinos Vontas & Marco Pavarani & Nicolas Miché & Marco Marengo & Anastasios Georgoulas, 2023. "Validation of the Eulerian–Eulerian Two-Fluid Method and the RPI Wall Partitioning Model Predictions in OpenFOAM with Respect to the Flow Boiling Characteristics within Conventional Tubes and Micro-Ch," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-26, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Erlend Liavåg Grotle & Vilmar Æsøy, 2017. "Numerical Simulations of Sloshing and the Thermodynamic Response Due to Mixing," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-20, September.
    2. Zhe Yan & Yan Li, 2018. "A Comprehensive Study of Dynamic and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Droplet Impact on Micro-Scale Rectangular Grooved Surface," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-17, May.
    3. Mohd Danish & Mohammed K. Al Mesfer & Khursheed B. Ansari & Mudassir Hasan & Abdelfattah Amari & Babar Azeem, 2021. "Predicting Conduction Heat Flux through Macrolayer in Nucleate Pool Boiling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-13, June.
    4. Colmenar-Santos, Antonio & Molina-Ibáñez, Enrique-Luis & Rosales-Asensio, Enrique & López-Rey, África, 2018. "Technical approach for the inclusion of superconducting magnetic energy storage in a smart city," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 1080-1091.
    5. Łukasz Adrian & Szymon Szufa & Piotr Piersa & Filip Mikołajczyk, 2021. "Numerical Model of Heat Pipes as an Optimization Method of Heat Exchangers," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-38, November.
    6. A. V. Demidovich & S. S. Kralinova & P. P. Tkachenko & N. E. Shlegel & R. S. Volkov, 2019. "Interaction of Liquid Droplets in Gas and Vapor Flows," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-24, November.
    7. Shoukat A. Khan & Muataz A. Atieh & Muammer Koç, 2018. "Micro-Nano Scale Surface Coating for Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer: A Critical Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-30, November.
    8. Konstantinos Vontas & Marco Pavarani & Nicolas Miché & Marco Marengo & Anastasios Georgoulas, 2023. "Validation of the Eulerian–Eulerian Two-Fluid Method and the RPI Wall Partitioning Model Predictions in OpenFOAM with Respect to the Flow Boiling Characteristics within Conventional Tubes and Micro-Ch," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-26, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:20:p:6641-:d:655948. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.