A Stabilized Boiling/Evaporation Two-Phase Flow in Microchannels

The high degree of instability in boiling two-phase flow in parallel microchannels is a widely recognized phenomenon. However, if the maldistribution of flow is eliminated and the generated vapor is discharged smoothly through the careful design of the inlet and outlet plenums, in addition, by using part of each channel as a virtual throttle to depress the flow excursions, some of these instabilities can be reduced or eliminated. Furthermore, with the aid of the capillarity resulting from the phase change in the microchannels, the current investigation indicates that boiling/evaporation two-phase flow in parallel microchannels with the proposed unique structure will result in a highly stable flow in terms of the overall flow characteristics, with only small oscillations inside the individual channels. This highly stable flow will facilitate the implementation of boiling/evaporation two-phase flow in the thermal management of microelectronics devices and in the miniaturization of two-phase power devices.