Pool boiling of ethanol and FC-72 on open microchannel surfaces

Abstract

The paper presents experimental investigations into pool boiling heat transfer for open microchannel surfaces. Parallel microchannels fabricated by machining were about 0.3 mm wide, and 0.2 to 0.5 mm deep and spaced every 0.1 mm. The experiments were carried out for ethanol, and FC-72 at atmospheric pressure. The image acquisition speed was 493 fps (at resolution 400 × 300 pixels with Photonfocus PHOT MV-D1024-160-CL camera). Visualization investigations aimed to identify nucleation sites and flow patterns and to determine the bubble departure diameter and frequency at various superheats. The primary factor in the increase of heat transfer coefficient at increasing heat flux was a growing number of active pores and increased departure frequency. Heat transfer coefficients obtained in this study were noticeably higher than those from a smooth surface.