Numerical Investigation on Saturated Boiling Heat Transfer in a Vertical Rectangular Minichannel

A numerical method based on the Euler-Euler model was developed to investigate the mechanism of saturated boiling heat transfer mechanism on upward flow in a vertical rectangular minichannel. This method validated by the experimental data from literature. At the same time, the mechanism of saturated boiling heat transfer was also investigated by ANSYS CFX for Freon R21 at high vapor quality in a vertical rectangular minichannel based on the above numerical method. The results show that the simulation results are good agreement with experimental data from reference and the deviation is within ±15%. The main boiling mechanism is forced convective boiling while the contribution of nucleate boiling is slight for saturated boiling heat transfer at high vapor quality. The evaporation of dispersed liquid phase should be also a main boiling heat transfer mechanism. These results will provide some constructive instructions for the understanding of saturated boiling heat transfer phenomenon in a vertical rectangular minichannel of PFHE.