Heat transfer of bubbly flows in microchannels at varied aspect ratios and hydraulic diameters

With the fast progress of new technologies applied to cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and fifth generation communication, the researches on the heat dissipation of high-power electronic devices have concentrated on the two-phase flows in the microchannel, with the phase change used to achieve excellent cooling efficiency. The objective of this paper is to conduct the computational and experimental studies for investigating the thermal-fluid behaviors of subcooled flow boiling in microchannels. In the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model, the numerical solver is built in ANSYS/Fluent® implementing the multiphase formulation with the full consideration of the effects of turbulence, surface tension, and phase change to appropriately imitate the interfacial movements between liquid water and vapor for probing the subcooled boiling and bubble nucleation processes over the microchannel. In the experimental investigation, a syringe pump and a programmable DC power supply is employed to regulate the heat flux and subcooled temperature for determining the heat transfer and pressure drop outcomes across the microchannel at varied aspect ratios and hydraulic diameters. In addition, this study sets up a high-speed camera with a LED fiber optical light source to acquire the close-up observation images over the complex flow boiling phenomena. The accuracy of CFD predictions is assessed by comparison against both the measured heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops as well as the photo-captured interfacial behaviors. The numerical simulations are then conducted to resolve the temperature gradients on the heating wall surface due to intense disturbances incited by the confined bubbly flow and sweeping flow at high aspect ratios, enhancing the cooling performance over the microchannels. The experimental measurements show that a reduction in inlet subcooling from 65 to 50 °C tends to enlarge the average heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop by 21.5 and 17.1%, respectively. The design impact study also reveals the average heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop at an aspect ratio of 5 greater than those at an aspect ratio of 2 by up to 41.1 and 27.2%, respectively. In contrast, increasing hydraulic diameter from 0.92 to 1.38 mm can strengthen the thermal and frictional outcomes by 17.2 and 20.3%. The microchannel design having an aspect ratio of 5.0 can realize the estimated coefficient of performance (COP) up to 116,277.8, achieving the satisfactory overall thermal and frictional outcomes.