Local Heat Transfer of Saturated Flow Boiling in Vertical Narrow Microchannel

An experimental study of saturated flow boiling in a high-aspect-ratio one-side-heating rectangular microchannel was conducted with de-ionized water as the working fluid. ZnO microrods with the average diameter of about 1 μm and length of about 7 μm were synthesized on the Ti wafer surface, which was used to fabricate the heated bottom surface of the microchannel. The ZnO microrod surface appeared to be hydrophobic and the capillary wetting effect on the surface was found after being wet. The heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of saturated flow boiling in the microchannel were studied and the flow patterns were photographed with a high-speed camera. Almost all the flow patterns observed in this experiment featured the main annular flow and abrupt flush of bubbly flow. Because of the capillary wetting effect on the ZnO microrod surface, the local dryout and rewetting phenomenon did not appear in this study. However, due to the numerous nucleation sites on ZnO microrod surface, the abrupt bubble flow caused much more disruption to the liquid film of annular flow when compared to the regular silicon surface. The abrupt bubble flow flushed through the annular liquid film and caused the fluctuation and nonuniformity of the liquid film and heat transfer deterioration, which was severer in the high heat flux conditions. Otherwise, the capillary effect on the ZnO microrod surface was able to restrict the nonuniformity of the liquid film under high heat flux and low mass flux conditions; thus, the deterioration of heat transfer performances diminished.