Microscale flow visualization of nucleate boiling in small channels: Mechanisms influencing heat transfer

摘要

This paper describes the use of a new test apparatus employing flow visualization via ultra-high-speed video and microscope optics to study microscale nucleate boiling in a small, rectangular, heated channel. The results presented are for water. Because of confinement effects produced by the channel cross section being of the same nominal size as the individual vapor bubbles nucleating at discrete wall sites, flow regimes and heat transfer mechanisms that occur in small channels are shown to be considerably different than those in large channels. Flow visualization data are presented depicting discrete bubble/bubble and bubble/wall interactions for moderate and high heat flux. Quantitative data are also presented on nucleate bubble growth behavior for a single nucleation site in the form of growth rates, bubble sizes, and frequency of generation in the presence and absence of a thin wall liquid layer. Mechanistic boiling behavior and trends are observed which support the use of this type of research as a powerful means to gain fundamental insights into why, under some conditions, nucleate boiling heat transfer coefficients are considerably larger in small channels than in large channels.