Numerical Investigations of the Cooling Performance of an R410A Closed-Loop Spray Cooling System

Abstract

To investigate the spray cooling characteristics and the impact of spray parameters such as chamber pressure, spray height, and spray tilt angle on heat transfer efficiency, a mathematical model based on the Eulerian–Lagrangian frame was established for an R410A closed-loop spray cooling system. The results revealed that the spray pattern is conical, with the center velocity significantly higher than the edge velocity. The temperature distribution of the cooling surface and liquid film height both exhibit a “W” shape, and the surface temperature is lower where the liquid film is thin. There is an optimal liquid film height of approximately 5 μm, at which the cooling surface temperature is the lowest. The surface temperature increases with an increase in the spray chamber pressure. Considering average cooling surface temperature, the optimal tilt angle is 40° with an average surface temperature of 330.1 K. When considering wall temperature and wall heat transfer coefficient uniformity, however, the optimal tilt angle is 10°, leading to the average surface temperature of 332.6 K. When increasing the optimal spray height to 70 mm, the average surface temperature is 313.4 K.

Keywords

• spray cooling
• numerical simulation
• R410A
• heat flux