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Unsteady characteristics of flow pattern and pressure drop of flow boiling in single straight microchannel under sudden heat flux increase

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Abstract

The high heat flux on the CPV (concentrator photovoltaic) cells may lead to heat dissipation difficulty and high temperature, which will result in the decrease in electricity efficiency or even damage of CPV cells. To tackle with this problem, microchannel cooling has attracted increasing attentions recently due to its much higher heat transfer performance. However, the significantly varying solar radiation intensity will cause the sudden variation of heat load on the CPV cells, which may further influence the flow boiling inside the microchannels. Therefore, in this study, the flow characteristics including the pressure drop and flow pattern of deionized water boiling in a single straight microchannel (DH = 400 μm) under sudden heat flux increase were experimentally investigated. The serious pressure drop variation and flow boiling instability properties after the sudden heat flux increase were observed. The study on the influential factors indicates that increasing the mass flux from 411.66 to 720.41 kg m−2 s−1 and lowering the inlet temperature from 55 to 45 °C helped weaken fluctuation intensity of pressure drop due to the lower vapor quality. Meanwhile, the detailed flow pattern encountering different levels of heat flux increase were observed using high speed camera, which indicates that much higher heat flux increase leaded to a more rapid bubble generating and phase change phenomenon.

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Abbreviations

\({A}_{\mathrm{c}}\) :

The cross-sectional area of the microchannel, m2

\({A}_{1}\) :

The cross-sectional area of reservoir, m2

\({A}_{2}\) :

The cross-sectional area of the microchannel, m2

\({A}_{\mathrm{w}}\) :

Heating area of the microchannel, m2

\({c}_{\mathrm{p}}\) :

Specific heat, kJ kg−1 K−1

\({D}_{\mathrm{h}}\) :

Microchannel hydraulic diameter, m

\({f}_{\mathrm{app}}\) :

The apparent coefficient of friction

\(G\) :

Mass flux, kg m−2 s−1

\(H\) :

Microchannel height, m

\(h\) :

Enthalpy, kJ kg−1

\({h}_{\mathrm{fg}}\) :

Latent heat of water, kJ kg−1

\(I\) :

Input current, A

\(L\) :

Microchannel length, m

\(\dot{m}\) :

Mass flow rate, kg s−1

\(P\) :

Pressure, kPa

\({Q}_{\mathrm{tot}}\) :

Total input direct current heating power, kW

\({Q}_{\mathrm{net}}\) :

Heat absorbed by fluid per second, kW

\(q\) :

Input heat flux, kW m−2

q eff :

Effective input heat flux, kW m−2

\(\mathrm{Re}\) :

Reynolds number

\(T\) :

Temperature, °C

\(U\) :

Input voltage, V

\(\mathrm{W}\) :

Microchannel width, m

\({x}_{\mathrm{out}}\) :

The vapor quality at the outlet

\(\Delta P\) :

Pressure drop, kPa

\(\eta\) :

Heating efficiency

\({v}_{\mathrm{f}}\) :

Specific volume of the inlet fluid, m3 kg−1

\(\rho\) :

Density, kg m−3

\(\mathrm{cont}\) :

Inlet contraction loss

\(\mathrm{exp}\) :

Experimental measurement

\(\mathrm{expa}\) :

Outlet expansion recovery

\(\mathrm{f}\) :

Fluid

\(\mathrm{l}\) :

Liquid

\(\mathrm{sub}\) :

Sub-cooled

\(\mathrm{sat}\) :

Saturation

\(\mathrm{sp}\) :

Single-phase

\(\mathrm{tp}\) :

Two-phase

\(\mathrm{in}\) :

Microchannel inlet

\(\mathrm{out}\) :

Microchannel outlet

\(\mathrm{v}\) :

Vapor

\(\mathrm{w}\) :

Bottom wall

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52276092), Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, China (Project No.: ZR2020ME170) and Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows (21F20056).

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Author notes

  1. Jiaojiao Zhuang and Hao Yu have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gas Engineering, College of Pipeline and Civil Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, Shandong, China

    Jiaojiao Zhuang, Hao Yu, He Tianbiao & Mao Ning

  2. Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 153-8505, Japan

    Mao Ning

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  1. Jiaojiao Zhuang
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  2. Hao Yu
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Contributions

Conceptualization: [ZJ], [YH]; Methodology: [ZJ], [YH]; Formal analysis and investigation: [ZJ], [YH]; Writing—original draft preparation: [ZJ], [YH]; Writing—review and editing: [HT], [MN]; Funding acquisition: [MN]; Supervision: [HT], [MN].

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Correspondence to Mao Ning.

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Zhuang, J., Yu, H., Tianbiao, H. et al. Unsteady characteristics of flow pattern and pressure drop of flow boiling in single straight microchannel under sudden heat flux increase. J Therm Anal Calorim 147, 14571–14586 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-022-11641-9

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