Björn Palm

Heat transfer in microchannels

In this article an attempt has been made to review the literature regarding heat transfer and pressure drop in one- and two-phase flow in microchannels. The emphasis has been on reports presented during the last few years. For single-phase flow, channels with hydraulic diameters less than 1 mm have been considered. For two-phase flow, very little information is available for such small channels. Also, for two-phase flow, deviations from largetube behavior start at diameters of a few millimeters. For these reasons a slightly larger diameter range has been considered in this case. As a conclusion, it can be stated that the understanding of flow in microchannels is increasing steadily, but that there are still many questions to be answered concerning the reasons for deviations from classical theory developed for larger channels.

Experimental investigation of single-phase convective heat transfer in circular microchannels

In this study, the heat transfer characteristics of single-phase forced convection of R134a through single circular micro-channels with 1.7, 1.2, and 0.8 mm. as inner diameters were investigated ex ...

Plate heat exchangers : Calculation methods for single-and two-phase flow

Plate heat exchangers were first developed about 100 years ago but have won increasing interest during the last two decades, primarily due to the development of methods of manufacturing brazed plate heat exchangers. This type of heat exchanger offers very good heat transfer performance in single-phase flow as well as in evaporation and condensation. Part of the reason is the small hydraulic diameters, typically being less than 5 mm. Other advantages of plate heat exchangers are the extremely compact design and the efficient use of the construction material. In spite of their long use, the calculation methods for predicting heat transfer and pressure drop are not widely known. It is the purpose of this article to present such calculation methods for single-phase flow and for flow boiling and to discuss some of the specifics of this type of heat exchangers.

Influence of system pressure on the boiling heat transfer coefficient in a closed two-phase thermosyphon loop☆

An Experimental Investigation of the Influence of System Pressure on the Boiling Heat Transfer Coefficient in a Closed Two-Phase Thermosyphon Loop

Numerical simulation of bubbly two-phase flow in a narrow channel

An advanced numerical simulation method on fluid dynamics - lattice-Boltzmann (LB) method is employed to simulate the movement of Taylor bubbles in a narrow channel, and to investigate the flow reg ...

Fabrication, Characterization and Thermophysical Property Evaluation of SiC Nanofluids for Heat Transfer Applications

Nanofluids (NFs) are nanotechnology-based colloidal suspensions fabricated by suspending nanoparticles (NPs) in a base liquid. These fluids have shown potential to improve the heat transfer properties of conventional heat transfer fluids. In this study we report in detail on fabrication, characterization and thermo-physical property evaluation of SiC NFs, prepared using SiC NPs with different crystal structures, for heat transfer applications. For this purpose, a series of SiC NFs containing SiC NPs with different crystal structure (α-SiC and β-SiC) were fabricated in a water (W)/ethylene glycol (EG) mixture (50/50 wt% ratio). Physicochemical properties of NPs/NFs were characterized by using various techniques, such as powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fouriertransform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and Zeta potential analysis. Thermo-physical properties including thermal conductivity (TC) and viscosity for NFs containing SiC particles (α- and β- phase) weremeasured. The results show among all suspensions NFs fabricated with α-SiC particles have more favorable thermo-physical properties compared to the NFs fabricated with β-SiC.The observed difference is attributed to combination of several factors, including crystal structure (β- vs. α-), sample purity, and residual chemicals exhibited on SiCNFs. A TC enhancement of ∼20% while 14% increased viscosity were obtained for NFs containing 9 wt% of particular type of α-SiC NPs indicating promising capability of this kind of NFs for further heat transfer characteristics investigation.

Flow Boiling Visualization of R-134a in a Vertical Channel of Small Diameter

The present work reports on flow boiling visualization of refrigerant R-134a in a vertical circular channel with an internal diameter of 1.33 mm and 235 mm in heated length. A quartz tube with a homogeneous Indium Tin Oxide coating is used to allow heating and simultaneous visualization. Flow patterns have been observed along the heated length with the aid of high-speed complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) digital camera. From the flow boiling visualization, seven distinct two-phase flow patterns have been observed: isolated bubbly flow, confined bubbly flow, slug flow, churn flow, slug-annular flow, annular flow, and mist flow. Two-phase flow pattern observations are presented in the form of flow pattern maps. The effects of the saturation temperature and the inlet subcooling degree on the two-phase flow pattern transitions are elucidated. Finally, the experimental flow pattern map is compared with models developed for conventional sizes as well as to a microscale map for air-water mixtures available in literature, showing a large discrepancy.

Flow Boiling Heat Transfer Characteristics of a Minichannel up to Dryout Condition

In this paper, the experimental flow boiling heat transfer results of a minichannel are presented. A series of experiments was conducted to measure the heat transfer coefficients in a minichannel m ...

Choosing Working Fluid for Two-Phase Thermosyphon Systems for Cooling of Electronics

The heat fluxes from electronic components are steadily increasing and have now, in some applications, reached levels where air-cooling is no longer sufficient. One alternative solution, which has ...

The Use of a Nano- and Microporous Surface Layer to Enhance Boiling in a Plate Heat Exchanger

Presented research is an experimental study of the performance of a standard plate heat exchanger evaporator, both with and without a novel nano- and microporous copper structure, used to enhance t ...