Effects of Forced Wall Vibration on the Onset of Flow Instability and Critical Heat Flux in Uniformly-Heated Microchannels

Forced convection using single-phase liquid water is a common cooling mechanism utilized in high power density engineering applications. Typically, design specifications require the coolant to remain subcooled throughout the heat transfer channel to ensure adequate cooling of the heated surfaces. Despite these planned steady state parameters, accident or transient conditions can cause boiling to take place within the channels. For this reason, it is important in the design and operation of heated channels to understand and predict the onset of boiling and two-phase flow instabilities that can lead to channel dryout and potential overheating and/or burnout of the heat transfer system.