Numerical Investigation on Flow Pattern, Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop Characteristics of Flow Boiling with Discrete Heat Sources

Abstract

Heat dissipation and temperature uniformity are one of the key technologies for electronic equipment. With the rapid growth of computing demand and the wide application of multichip devices, heat sources are distributed discretely in space. Therefore, the flow boiling in the mini-channel with two discrete heat sources is investigated in this study. The effects of heat source distribution, inlet fluid temperature and channel diameter on flow pattern, heat transfer and pressure drop are discussed in detail. The results show that intermittent flow tends to form around discrete heat sources, especially near the heat source which is far from the channel inlet. Moreover, the distance between discrete heat sources shouldn’t be too close to avoid heat concentration, nor too far to make full use of latent heat. When the distance between two heat sources is 70 mm, the temperature distribution is appropriate, and the heat dissipation is the best in this study. For the discrete heat source far from the inlet, the heat transfer coefficient increases significantly when the inlet fluid temperature increases due to the preheating of another heat source.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the key project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52130609).

Notes on contributors

Ping Yang

Ping Yang is a master student in the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, since 2020. She received her bachelor’s degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, in 2020. Her main research interests are the numerical and experimental study of flow boiling and thermal management of phase change materials.

Weihao Ling

Weihao Ling is a master student in the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, since 2021. He received his bachelor’s degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, in 2021. His main research interests are numerical and theoretical study of turbulence with the method of nonlinear dynamics.

Ke Tian

Ke Tian is a Ph.D. student in the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, since 2019. He received his bachelor’s degree and mater’s degrees from Hebei University of Technology, China, in 2016 and 2019, respectively. His main research interests are numerical and experimental study of novel heat transfer enhancement technology.

Min Zeng

Min Zeng is a Professor of School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University. He received his Ph.D. degree in Engineering Thermophysics from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 2004. He was awarded a scholarship from the Swedish Institute from September 1, 2011, to September 1, 2012 for postdoctoral research at Lund University. He was awarded New Century Excellent Talents in University of China. His main research interests are enhanced heat transfer, compact heat exchangers, solid oxide fuel cell, and numerical heat transfer and transport phenomena in porous media. He has published more than forty papers in international journals or conferences and was also authorized with 2 USA and 8 China Invention Patents.

Qiuwang Wang

Qiuwang Wang is a Professor in the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering Thermophysics from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, in 1996. He then joined the faculty of the university and took the professor post in 2001. His main research interests include energy storage and saving, control and optimization of heat and mass transfer processes, heat transfer under extreme conditions, etc. He has also been author or coauthor of 4 books and more than 200 journal papers with H-index of 45. He has obtained more than 40 China Invention Patents and 5 US Patents.