Surface Structure Enhanced Microchannel Flow Boiling
Abstract
We investigated the role of surface microstructures in two-phase microchannels on suppressing flow instabilities and enhancing heat transfer. We designed and fabricated microchannels with well-defined silicon micropillar arrays on the bottom heated microchannel wall to promote capillary flow for thin film evaporation while facilitating nucleation only from the sidewalls. Our experimental results show significantly reduced temperature and pressure drop fluctuation especially at high heat fluxes. A critical heat flux (CHF) of 969 W/cm2 was achieved with a structured surface, a 57% enhancement compared to a smooth surface. We explain the experimental trends for the CHF enhancement with a liquid wicking model. The results suggest that capillary flow can be maximized to enhance heat transfer via optimizing the microstructure geometry for the development of high performance two-phase microchannel heat sinks.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 17, 2016
- Source ID
- 10.1115/1.4033497
Entities
People
- Dion S. Antao
- Evelyn Wang
- Kuang-han Chu
- Siyu Chen
- Terry J. Hendricks
- TieJun Zhang
- Yangying Zhu
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Battelle Memorial Institute
- California Institute of Technology
- Masdar Institute of Science and Technology
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Office of Naval Research
- Singapore–MIT alliance