International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122176

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/hmt

Evaluation of heater size and external enhancement techniques in

pool boiling heat transfer with dielectric fluids
Farhan Mody a, Aranya Chauhan a, Maharshi Shukla a, Satish G. Kandlikar a,b,∗
a
Mechanical Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology, 76 Lomb Memorial Dr., Rochester, NY 14623, United States
b
Microsystems Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology, 76 Lomb Memorial Dr., Rochester, NY 14623, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: With the advent of digital and information-based economies and increased social interaction on digital
Received 27 July 2021 media, electronic components have become ever-pervasive, smaller and more powerful, resulting in in-
Revised 19 October 2021
creased thermal loads. The cooling systems need to become more efficient in extracting the heat and
Accepted 23 October 2021
allowing the devices to sustain peak performance for a longer duration. Available pool boiling data is
Available online 16 November 2021
mainly available on heater sizes of 10 mm square, but larger chip sizes of 34.5 × 32 mm are generally
Keywords: employed in data server applications. The present work focuses on pool boiling performance on plain
Pool boiling and microchannel chips with dielectric fluids and also brings out the effect of heater size scaling. The
enhanced heat transfer pool boiling experiments were conducted in a closed system at atmospheric pressure using PP1, PP1C
macroconvection mechanism and FC-87 as the working fluids. A flow pattern with a large plume of bubbles was found to be respon-
Hollow Conical Structure (HCS) sible for generating macroconvection currents and improve the performance of the larger-sized heater,
Microchannel
although additional study is recommended to see the transition point and its relation to the bubble
Heater Size Scaling
Heat Transfer Coefficient
flow patterns. Additionally, pool boiling enhancement using a patented hollow volcano-shaped conical
enhancement structure was investigated. The conical structure placed above the heater surface similarly
generated macroconvection currents that were responsible for boiling enhancement. However, the hollow
conical structure did not always improve the performance since the liquid supply mechanism is already
present in the microchannel flow passages.
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Researchers have thoroughly studied different techniques for

enhancing pool boiling performance using microporous coating [1],
Efficient removal of heat from high heat flux generating sur- finned surface [2], surface roughness [3], nano-structures [4], mi-
faces is essential for sustained peak performance of high-powered crochannels [5], porous fin tops [6], selective sintering over mi-
electronic devices. Out of different heat transfer mechanisms, pool crochannels [7], and bi-conductive surfaces [8] that create active
boiling is particularly known for having a simpler construction nucleation sites. Cooke and Kandlikar [5] conducted a parametric
than a flow boiling configuration, both of which utilize the la- study by varying microchannel dimensions and observed a max-
tent heat of vaporization of the working fluid for extracting a large imum heat flux of 244 W/cm2 without reaching CHF and a HTC
amount of heat. The heat transfer capacity of any pool boiling sys- of 269 kW/(m2 K) using a microchannel chip with 375 μm chan-
tem is capped by critical heat flux (CHF), where the vapor bubbles nel width, 400 μm channel depth, and 230 μm fin width. The heat
coalesce laterally to create a vapor blanket over the heater surface, flux was over 5 times larger, and HTC was 3.7 times larger than
inhibit rewetting of the surface and terminate the efficient nucle- that of a plain chip at a similar wall superheat. Mori and Okuyama
ate boiling process. The efficiency of heat transfer is measured us- [9] used porous honeycomb media over the plain copper chip and
ing the heat transfer coefficient (HTC) that represents the heat flux observed 2.5 times enhanced CHF.
dissipated for a given degree of wall superheat. Several authors have stressed the importance of escaping va-
por bubbles and their motion to enhance pool boiling perfor-
mance [10,11]. Similarly, some researchers have explored the use
of evaporative momentum force for manipulating escaping bubble
Abbreviations: CHF, Critical Heat Flux; DAQ, Data Acquisition System; FC, Fluo-
movement path for performance enhancement [12,13]. Based on
rocarbon; HTC, Heat Transfer Coefficient; LH, Large Heater.
∗
Corresponding author at: Mechanical Engineering, Rochester Institute of Tech- these techniques, Hayes et al. [14] developed an aluminum heater
nology, 76 Lomb Memorial Dr., Rochester, NY 14623, United States. surface with aluminum hollow volcano-shaped conical structures
E-mail address: [email protected] (S.G. Kandlikar).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2021.122176
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F. Mody, A. Chauhan, M. Shukla et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122176

Rainey and You [16] compared 1× 1 cm, 2× 2 cm, and 5× 5 cm

Nomenclature surface and found that compared to the larger heaters, the 1× 1
cm heater reaches higher CHF due to more consistent surface mor-
dT temperature difference (°C) phology. Emery and Kandlikar [17] performed pool boiling experi-
dx distance between adjacent thermocouples (mm) ments on a 10 mm square plain copper heating surface using di-
g acceleration due to gravity (m2 /s) electric fluids PP1, PP1C, PP3, and PP80 as the working fluids and
h heat transfer coefficient (W/(m²°C)) obtained a CHF of 15.6, 16, 13.4, and 14.2 W/cm2 respectively.
I induced-convection parameter, (-) One of the major gaps in the current literature is the effect of
k thermal conductivity (W/(m°C)) heater size on the pool boiling performance. Recent literature has
L heater characteristic length (m) focused on a heater size of 10 mm square to meet the needs of
q" heat flux (W/m2 ) electronics cooling applications. However, the chips used in the
T temperature (°C) computer servers in data center applications are 34.5× 32 mm
Up uncertainty in parameter p (-) in size. The present study focuses on understanding the effect of
x1 distance between heater surface and T1 thermocou- heater scalability on the pool boiling performance of a 10 mm
ple location (mm) square plain copper chip with an additional boiling surface of
34.5× 32 mm. These results for the 10 mm square chip were ob-
Greek Symbols
tained by previous investigators [17,18]. To understand the heater
࢞x distance between two consecutive thermocouples
size effect on heat transfer mechanisms, high-speed imaging is also
(mm)
performed to study any changes in the bubble behavior and two-
ρ density (kg/m3 )
phase circulation patterns from the rising bubble plume above the
μ viscosity (N/m-s)
heater surface. Additionally, pool boiling enhancement using mi-
Subscript crochannel surfaces and a novel concept of placing a hollow con-
1-4 thermocouple probes ical structure, HCS, is investigated as they provide a simple en-
Cu copper hancement technique in pool boiling application. The experiments
L liquid were performed using PP1, PP1C, and FC-87 dielectric fluids at at-
s surface mospheric pressure.
sat saturation
V vapor 2. Experimental setup
w wall
The experiments were performed in a closed pool boiling test
setup consisting of a rectangular chamber, heater block, test sec-
(HCS) and conducted pool boiling experiments using water at tion, and a water-cooled copper condenser coil. The experiments
atmospheric pressure. They found that if the top hole of the were conducted using dielectric fluids PP1, PP1C, and FC-87 dielec-
HCS is greater than the bubble departure diameter, vapor escapes tric liquids at atmospheric pressure. Fig. 1(a) shows a schematic
from the top hole, while smaller holes caused the vapor to es- of the experimental setup used in this study. Borosilicate glass
cape through side holes at the bottom. They observed a HTC of and aluminum compression plates were used on the front and
190 kW/(m²°C) with miniaturized HCS on the microchannels, pre- rear sides of the rectangular chamber to laterally compress against
senting a 4-fold increase in HTC compared to a plain aluminum the aluminum chamber using fasteners. A vacuum port, fluid inlet
surface. port, condenser inlet and outlet port, pressure gauge, thermocou-
Kwark et al. [15] studied the effect of heater orientation and ple probe, and auxiliary heater were connected to the rectangle
heater size on pool boiling performance using different heater sizes chamber. The condenser coil was connected to an external water
at atmospheric pressure using water and found that increasing the chiller. The copper test chip was bolted onto a garolite chip holder,
heater size reduced the CHF due to the larger nucleating area caus- and the chip holder was bolted to the bottom surface of the alu-
ing greater resistance for the liquid to rewet the boiling surface. minum block. A cooper heater block consisting of four cartridge

Fig. 1. Experimental setup. (a) Schematic of the test setup. (b) Schematic of the heating chip assembly.

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F. Mody, A. Chauhan, M. Shukla et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122176

Fig. 2. (a) 3D Exploded view of the copper heating chip assembly. (b) Large heater schematic. (c) Small heater schematic [18,19].

heaters of 200 W power output each was inserted from the bot- the bottom of the rectangular chamber and pushed against the
tom of the aluminum chamber and pushed against the copper test copper test chip for making good contact. Power supply through
chip to supply heat to the test section. Thermocouples T1 , T2 , and auxiliary and copper heater block was turned on, and the power
T3 were inserted in the heater block, and thermocouple T4 was supplied to the copper heater block was increased in the steps
inserted in the copper heating chip to perform heat transfer calcu- of 2 V between two data points. After each increment, the tem-
lations, as shown in Fig. 1(b). perature at each location in the setup was allowed to stabilize
before logging the data. The temperature data was acquired us-
2.1. Copper heating chip ing National instruments cDaq-9172 and MOD-9211 connected to a
LabVIEW program, and videos were recorded using Photron high-
Fig. 2(a) shows the exploded view of the copper heating chip speed camera at 20 0 0 frames per second. The flow rate through
assembly used to secure the large heater for the experiments con- the condenser and the power of the auxiliary heater was adjusted
ducted for the current study. Fig. 2(b) shows the large heater with at each increment until atmospheric pressure was attained. The
a 68 mm diameter copper chip and a rectangular boiling area experiments were conducted until atmospheric pressure could be
of 34.5× 32 mm. Kapton tape was used to prevent heat trans- maintained or CHF was observed.
fer from the region outside the boiling surface. The microchannel
machined heating chip had microchannels with 500 μm channel
4. Data reduction
width, 400 μm channel depth, and 200 μm fin width. Fig. 2(c)
shows the small heater used by previous researchers [17,18].
Calculations for this study were similar to some of the previ-
ously published work [5,6,11,17,20,21]. Heat flux through the cop-
2.2. Hollow volcano-shaped conical structures (HCS) manifold
per block was calculated using Fourier’s law of 1-D conduction.
The 3D-printed HCS manifold consists of a 3 × 3 array of dT
hollow volcano-conical structures, each having a base length of q = −kcu (1)
dx
9.75 mm, a top hole diameter of 3 mm, and a height of 5.75 mm,
The temperature gradient (dT/dx) along the heater block can be
as seen in Fig. 3(a). This geometry of HCS is similar to that used
calculated using Taylor’s backward series approximation as follows:
by Hayes et al. [14,19]. The base of the HCS is raised to a height of
2 mm and has a 1 mm gap for regulating the flow of liquid to the
dT 3T1 − 4T2 + T3
heater surface, as shown in Fig. 3(b). = (2)
dx 2 x
3. Experimental procedure where T1 , T2 , and T3 correspond to the top, middle, and bottom
thermocouples temperatures. The spacing between the thermocou-
The copper chip was mounted on the garolite block and bolted ples as denoted by x is 5 mm.
to the bottom surface of the rectangular chamber. Silicon gasket, The surface temperature can be calculated using the tempera-
borosilicate glass, and aluminum compression plates were fastened ture gradient and T4 thermocouple temperature.
on either side of the rectangular chamber for sealing the setup. Af-  
ter that, the dielectric fluid was filled in the chamber through the q
TS = T4 − x1 (3)
inlet port and then sealed. The copper heater block was lifted from kcu

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F. Mody, A. Chauhan, M. Shukla et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122176

Fig. 3. (a) Schematic of aluminum hollow conical structure developed by Kwark et al. [15]. (b) Actual hollow conical structure fabricated by Kwark et al. [15]. (c) Top of HCS
manifold fabricated for the large heater. (d) Side view of the HCS for the large heater.

where, x1 is the distance between the boiling surface and thermo-

couple T4 .
HTC can be calculated as the amount of heat flux dissipated per
degree of wall superheat, i.e., the temperature difference between
the copper heating surface temperature and saturation tempera-
ture of the dielectric liquid.
q
h= (4)
Ts − Tsat

5. Uncertainty analysis

An uncertainty analysis was performed similarly to that of

[11,22]. Thermocouple calibration, the thermal conductivity of cop-
per, the least count of measuring instrument, and distance be-
tween thermocouples contributed to the uncertainty. There are
two types of errors associated with the experimental study: (1)
bias error, (2) precision error. The cumulative total of bias and pre-
cision error can be expressed as:

Uy = B2y + Py2 (5)

where Uy is the total uncertainty, By is the bias error and Py is the

precision error. Fig. 4. Variation in uncertainty with increasing heat flux for tested dielectric fluids
The error is determined through the temperature gradient, heat with the plain LH.
flux, surface temperature, wall superheat, and HTC by using the
following equation:
Uncertainty in parameter p with n number of samples can be
calculated as shown in Eq. (6). The uncertainty in heat flux for plain copper chip tested for re-
  2 frigerants PP1, PP1C, and FC-87 are plotted in Fig. 4. At the lowest

n
∂p registered heat flux, the uncertainty is around 33%, but it starts
Up = u (6)
1
∂ ai ai to reduce drastically as heat flux increases. Uncertainty values of
6.5%, 6.0% and 5.7% at CHF were obtained for PP1, PP1C and FC-87,
Where U p is the uncertainty in parameter p and it is dependent respectively.
on independent variable a over n samples and uai is the uncer- The heater block was separated from the chip block through a
tainty of parameter ai . contacting interface. The heater block thus could be quickly dis-
Expanding Eq. (6) for heat calculating the uncertainty in heat engaged from the chip block upon reaching the CHF to prevent
flux, Eq. (7) thermal damage to the setup. Due to the contact resistance, the
 heater block was running hotter than the chip block and most of
Uq (Uk )2 (Ux )2 9(UT 1 )2 + 16(UT 2 )2 + (UT 3 )2 the heat losses occurred in the heater block prior to the chip block.
= + + (7)
q k2 x 2 (3T1 + 4T2 + T3 )2 The heat transfer efficiency from the cartridge heater to the boiling

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F. Mody, A. Chauhan, M. Shukla et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122176

Table 1
Pool boiling performance of plain small heater (SH) and plain large heater (LH) at CHF.

Refrigerant and heater surface tested CHF (W/cm²) Wall superheat (°C) HTC (kW/m²°C)

PP1 [SH] [17] 15.6 28.6 5.5

PP1C [SH] [17] 16 37.5 4.3
FC-87 [SH] [19] 16 31.1 5.1
PP1 [LH] 23.6 30.8 7.6
PP1C [LH] 28.7 35.9 8.0
FC-87 [LH] 30.5 30.2 10.0

Fig. 5. Comparison of pool boiling performance of larger heater and smaller heater for (a) the pool boiling curve and (b) HTC vs. heat flux.

surface was around 80%. The uncertainty in the heat flux measure- heat transfer efficiency. Fig. 5(b) compares the HTC for a given heat
ment was around 6%, as mentioned in the preceding paragraph. flux for different pool boiling configurations. It can be observed
that the LH has higher HTC compared to SH for similar heat flux.
6. Results and discussion Table 1 shows the results of CHF, wall superheat, and HTC at CHF
for small heater (SH) and large heater (LH).
This work aims to understand the heater size scaling effect The boiling process was captured with high-speed imaging to
for plain heating surfaces, heat transfer enhancement through mi- reveal bubble flow patterns. The enhancement in pool boiling per-
crochannels, and external enhancement structures. The test con- formance of LH over SH is attributed to the increase in nucleation
figurations are experimented with PP1, PP1C, and FC-87 at atmo- and subsequent bubble coalescence, forming a plume of vapor that
spheric pressure. promotes macro-convection currents in the liquid pool and draws
liquid from the nearby region onto the boiling region. This boiling
6.1. Effect of heater scale behavior is observed through the photographs shown in Fig. 6.
Fig. 6 shows high-speed images of vapor bubble formation over
This section presents the results on the effect of heater size on a plain copper heater (LH) with PP1 at 5, 13, 19, and 24 W/cm2 .
pool boiling performance. Fig. 5(a) compares the pool boiling per- Fig. 6(a) shows bubble movement at 5 W/cm2, and it can be
formance between SH and LH using PP1, PP1C, and FC-87 dielec- observed that the bubble venting mainly occurs in a scattered
tric fluids. The LH has a boiling surface of 34.5x 32 mm, and the pattern. However, as the heat flux is increased to 13, 19, and
SH has a boiling surface of 10× 10 mm. The data for pool boiling 24 W/cm2 , the escaping bubbles form a more prominent plume
experiments with PP1 and PP1C on SH was conducted by Emery that stimulates strong macroconvection currents in the liquid pool
and Kandlikar [17], the results for pool boiling experiments over and draws liquid on the heater surface. Fig. 6(b) shows a graphi-
SH using FC-87 were acquired by Chang et al. [18], and the authors cal presentation of the vapor plume and macroconvection currents
of the current article have performed the pool boiling experiments inside the pool for a clearer understanding.
over LH using PP1, PP1C, and FC-87 fluids. Macroconvection has been shown to be an important contrib-
As seen from Fig. 5(a), the pool boiling curve for LH achieves utor in pool boiling heat transfer, especially in microstructures
higher CHF compared to SH with a similar wall superheat. Com- that are designed to alter the flow path of nucleating bubbles
pared to SH, LH gives about 53%, 92%, and 103% improvement in and the entrapped liquid between the rising bubble streams [23].
CHF for PP1, PP1C, and FC-87 dielectric fluid, respectively. The data Geometries that direct vapor bubbles away from the nucleating
points for LH move leftwards compared to the SH due to improved sites [10,12] or tapered manifold configurations [24] that provide

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F. Mody, A. Chauhan, M. Shukla et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122176

Fig. 6. (a) High-speed images of escaping bubble over plain cooper heating surface. (b) Escaping vapor plume.

a tapered microgap for preferential expansion of vapor bubbles in The induced-convection scale parameter however does not fully
specific directions and generate a pumpless flow boiling in pool account for the convective effects. It is based on the liquid mass
boiling are also manifestations of the enhanced macroconvection that arrives at the heater surface to replace the vapor gener-
mechanisms. The macroconvection also provides a unidirectional ated over the heater. However, there is a forced convection ef-
flow that prevents vapor buildup on a heater surface and delays fect that causes the high velocity liquid from the sides to influ-
the onset of CHF. The vapor plume seen in Fig. 6(b) acts like a ence the nucleating bubble behavior and increase the heat transfer
pump that drives the flow from the sides onto the heater surface. rate. The small bath size prevents buildup of large liquid veloc-
ity from the bulk and hence follows the decreasing trend. How-
6.1.1. Mechanistic evaluation of heat size effect on pool boiling heat ever when the bath size is large, the forced convective effects
transfer of the replenishing liquid from the sides will increase the heat
In 1965, Lienhard and Watanabe [25] postulated that the trans- transfer.
port properties affect the CHF, and introduced reduced pressure Our results clearly show an increasing trend with the heater
as a parameter in the Zuber’s expression. Lienhard and Kelling size in a large bath and support the hypothesis that forced
[26] and Lienhard et al. [27] recognized that boiling on a finite convective effects due to induced-convection flow need to be
sized heater in a large pool of liquid creates convection currents in accounted. Further, to validate this hypothesis, careful experi-
the pool and incorporated viscosity effects in the model. They hy- mentation with the same bath with large clearance around the
pothesized an induced-convection effect and introduced the char- heater should be used. Since we have used only one heater size
acteristic length of the heater L and defined an induced-convection in this setup, this hypothesis cannot be tested presently. Fu-
scale parameter, I, as follows: ture work in this regard is recommended. However, the present
 work established that the forced convective enhancement effect
I= ρ l Lσ / μ 2 (8) is an additional parameter that needs to be considered in future
modeling.
The non-dimensional capillary length L’ was used to account for The effect of local velocity and circulation patterns are other
the finite heater sizes: important considerations. These should be considered while gen-
 erating the parametric plots depicting the heater size effect. Thus
L = L g(ρl − ρv )/σ (9)
it is seen that the heater size effect depends on the three main
Their model predicted a monotonic decrease in CHF as the dimensions: characteristic heater dimension, characteristic bath di-
induced-convection parameter increased. Lienhard and Keeling mension and capillary length. In order to establish the parametric
[26] conducted pool boiling experiments with water by varying effects clearly, experiments should be conducted under controlled
the widths of a 4" (100 mm) long rectangular heater from 0.046" conditions by varying one variable at a time while keeping other
(1.17 mm) to 1" (25.4 mm). Their results, however showed a com- parameters constant. This is recommended as future experimental
plex trend. There was significant data scatter which showed an in- work.
creasing trend of CHF as I increased over smaller ranges. The data
of Lienhard et al. [27] with a small gap between the heater and 6.2. Performance of microchannel chip
the container however showed the decreasing trend in CHF with
increasing heater sizes. They postulated that the smaller bath sizes Learning from the work published by other authors [5,11], a
that restrict the liquid flow from the sides lead to multiple vapor copper heating chip with 500 μm channel width, 400 μm chan-
columns on the heater surface. On the other hand, larger bath sizes nel depth, and 200 μm fin width was fabricated for experimenting
lead to a plume-like structure which we observed in our present with the given study. Due to the limitations of the heater capac-
work. Lu et al. [28] model that considers the effect of nucleation ity in the present setup, the experiments with the microchannel
site density on the flow structure by introducing surface proper- heating chip did not reach CHF. Fig. 7 shows the pool boiling per-
ties in their model. formance using the microchannel chip and the three dielectric flu-

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F. Mody, A. Chauhan, M. Shukla et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122176

Fig. 7. Comparison of pool boiling performance between plain chip and microchannel chip (a) Pool boiling curve and (b) HTC with respect to heat flux.

Table 2
HTC for the plain and the microchannel chip at wall superheat of 19 ° C.

Refrigerants Plain chip HTC (kW/m²°C) Microchannel chip HTC (kW/m²°C) Enhancement factor

PP1 8.6 19.0 2.2

PP1C 8.4 13.4 1.6
FC-87 8.4 12.7 1.5

ids. The highest recorded heat fluxes with PP1, PP1C, and FC-87 6.3.1. Performance of plain chip with HCS manifold
were 42 W/cm², 40.6 W/cm², and 36.5 W/cm² at wall superheats of Pool boiling experiments over plain LH with HCS manifold and
19.6 ˚C, 26.4 ˚C, and 23.6 ˚C, respectively. Compared to PP1C and PP1, PP1C, and FC-87 working fluids at atmospheric pressure were
FC-87, the heat transfer performance of the experiment with PP1 performed until CHF, and the results from these experiments are
dielectric fluid registered a lower wall superheat for similar heat presented in Fig. 8. It can be observed from Fig. 8(a) that af-
fluxes. It is hypothesized that at low heat fluxes, localized boiling ter using the HCS manifold, CHF was enhanced with PP1, PP1C,
takes place over the heater surface, creating distinct vapor columns and FC-87 fluids. Compared to the experiments performed on the
and reduced wall superheat. With an increase in heat flux, boiling plain LH without using the HCS manifold that yielded a CHF of
starts over the entire surface of the test section leading to an in- 23.6 W/cm² with PP1, 28.7 W/cm² with PP1C, and 30.5 W/cm² with
crease in wall superheat. Fig. 7(b) shows the variation in HTC with FC-87 fluids, experiments with HCS manifold over plain LH yielded
heat flux for different working fluids. The maximum heat transfer the 28.1 W/cm², 38.3 W/cm², and 32.5 W/cm² at wall superheat of
coefficients achieved with PP1, PP1C, and FC-87 were 21.8 kW/(m² 43 ˚C, 50 ˚C, and 49 ˚C, respectively. Fig. 8(b) compares the HTC
˚C), 15.3 kW/(m² ˚C), and 15.4 kW/(m² ˚C), respectively. However, it as a function of heat flux for the experiments conducted using
can be observed that at higher fluxes, the HTC tapers off, and the plain LH with HCS manifold and plain LH without HCS manifold.
wall superheat increases significantly. It can be observed that generally, the HTC was similar for identi-
Table 2 compares the HTC for plain and the microchannel chip cal heat flux. The mechanism behind the enhancement can be ob-
at a wall superheat of 19 ˚C. Since the microchannel chip did not served through images shown in Fig. 9.
reach CHF, performance at 19 ˚C wall superheat was considered. Fig. 9 shows the high-speed images of bubble nucleation over
For a data point not falling on 19 ˚C of superheat, adjacent points the plain LH with a HCS manifold with increasing heat flux.
were linearly interpolated for HTC estimate. Fig. 9(a) shows that the vapor bubbles exit through the top hole
of the HCS manifold. Due to the buoyancy and converging conical
structure of the manifold, the vapor bubbles are forced to coalesce
6.3. Hollow conical structures (HCS) manifold and vent through the top hole and generate a unidirectional flow
over the heater surface and create the macroconvection enhance-
The HCS Manifold consists of a 3 × 3 array for HCS placed ment mechanism. The organized pathway of escaping vapor bub-
over the large heater (LH) surface. The conical structure has a bles encourages liquid to flow under the manifold through the gap
9.75× 9.75 mm base diameter and a 3 mm diameter opening on at the bottom and around the side. From Fig. 9(b–d), it can be ob-
top. The objective of using the HCS manifold is to direct the vapor served that increasing the heat flux makes the HCS manifold even
and provide a separate liquid-vapor pathway. The following sec- more effective, and the separate vapor and liquid pathways can be
tions discuss the results acquired through pool boiling experiments observed distinctively as heat flux increases. The 1 mm gap under
using a HCS manifold on a plain and a microchannel copper heat- the manifold leverages the inertia of incoming liquid to establish
ing chip.

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F. Mody, A. Chauhan, M. Shukla et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122176

Fig. 8. (a) Pool boiling curve over LH with HCS manifold and LH without HCS manifold. (b) Comparison of HTC with respect to heat flux for LH with HCS manifold and LH
without HCS manifold.

LH without HCS manifold. It can be observed that the maximum

HTC was 12.5 kW/(m²°C) for PP1, 11.5 kW/(m²°C) for PP1C, and
10.3 kW/(m²°C) for FC-87. However, above 20 W/cm² heat flux, the
HTC tapers off quickly to be 7.1 kW/(m²°C) for PP1, 7.3 kW/(m²°C)
for PP1C, and 6.4 kW/(m²°C) for FC-87 at CHF. Further investigation
is required to understand the decrease in HTC at higher heat flux.
The performance of the microchannel chip is seen to deteriorate
with the addition of an HCS as seen from Fig. 10(a) and (b). This
can be explained by considering the liquid supply mechanisms in
these configurations. Firstly, the microchannel chip performs bet-
ter than a plain chip because of the supply of liquid to the heater
surface through the microchannel passages. An HCS also improves
the performance by providing liquid to the heater surface through
the openings over the heater surface while bubbles are vented out
from the top. A plain surface benefits from this supply of liquid at
the heater surface. The microchannel surface already has the liq-
uid being supplied through the microchannel passages on the sur-
face of the heater. The addition of HCS does not provide any added
benefit as the microchannels provide an efficient liquid supply. In
fact, it seems that the vapor outflow is restricted and performance
deteriorates with the HCS, as seen in the plots.
Fig. 9. High-speed images of the separate liquid-vapor pathway during pool boiling
using HCS manifold over the plain LH. 7. Conclusion

In the present study, three dielectric fluids, PP1, PP1C, and FC-
a self-sustained one-directional flow structure over the heater sur- 87, were tested in a closed-loop pool boiling setup at atmospheric
face. pressure. The research was designed with two specific goals-(i)
to study the effect of heater size scalability from 10 mm square
to 34.5x 32 mm size, and (ii) to study the enhancement effect
6.3.2. Performance of microchannel chip with HCS manifold
with two enhancement techniques of (a) HCS manifold on plain
Fig. 10 shows the pool boiling performance of a HCS mani-
LH (34.5x 32 mm) and (b) microchannel LH of the same size. The
fold over the microchannel LH with PP1, PP1C, and FC-87 dielec-
HCS manifolds and microchannels were shown to be effective with
tric fluids. Fig. 10(a) shows that compared to the plain LH CHF
water by previous investigators, and their potential with dielectric
of 23.6 W/cm² with PP1, 28.7 W/cm² with PP1C, and 30.5 W/cm²
liquids on larger heater surfaces is investigated in this study. The
with FC-87 fluids, microchannel LH with HCS manifold resulted
following conclusions are drawn:
in CHF of 32.1 W/cm², 37.2 W/cm² & 33.2 W/cm² for PP1, PP1C,
and FC-87, respectively. Fig. 10(b) shows HTC with respect to heat • Increasing the heater size from 10 mm square to 34.5x 32 mm
flux for microchannel LH with HCS manifold and microchannel size enhanced the CHF on a plain copper heating chip using

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F. Mody, A. Chauhan, M. Shukla et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122176

Fig. 10. Pool boiling performance using HCS manifold over microchannel heating chip.

PP1, PP1C, and FC-87 by 53, 92, and 103%. The high-speed video terial or similar material has not been and will not be submitted
analysis on the larger heater surface shows the formation of a to or published in any other publication.
plume of vapor bubbles that enhances macro-convection in the In the table below, indicate the specific contributions made by
liquid pool and thereby draws more liquid onto the heater sur- each author (list the authors’ initials followed by their surnames,
face and improves the heat transfer process. e.g., Y.L. Chang) to the submitted manuscript. A check mark (x)
• The microchannel heating chip yield a highly efficient pool boil- must appear against the name of each author at least once in each
ing heat transfer on and have shown an improvement factor in of the three categories below.
HTC over a plain surface at comparable heat flux for PP1, PP1C,
and FC-87 of 2.2, 1.6, and 1.5. Microchannels are thus seen to Author name

be effective for enhancing boiling heat transfer with water as Farhan Maharshi Aranya Satish
well as dielectric liquids, and this effect is seen to be valid for Category 1 Mody Shukla Chauhan Kandlikar
large heater sizes as well. Conception and design of X X
• Compared to a plain LH, a plain LH with an HCS manifold re- study
sulted in CHF enhancement of 19.1% for PP1, 33.4% for PP1C, Acquisition of data X
(laboratory or clinical)
and 6.6% for FC-87. HCS manifold over microchannel LH yielded Data analysis and/or X X X X
a CHF enhancement of 36% for PP1, 29.6% for PP1C, and 8.9% for interpretation
FC-87 compared to a plain LH. Category 2
• High-speed video analysis of the HCS manifold shows the gen- Drafting of manuscript X X X X
and/or critical revision
eration of separate liquid-vapor pathways. Dielectric liquid en-
Category 3
ters through the openings at the bottom of the HCS manifold, Approval of final version X X X X
and the vapor vented out through the top hole of the conical of manuscript
structure of the manifold. The subsequent unidirectional mo-
tion of liquid and vapor over the heater surface resulted in the
Declaration of Competing Interest
enhancement of CHF.
• The enhancement created by vapor plumes in large heaters and
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
specific vapor venting generated in conical structures both ben-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
efit from the enhanced macroconvection mechanism for im-
influence the work reported in this paper.
proving pool boiling performance. The conical structures further
benefit from the creation of separate liquid-vapor pathways for
vapor removal and liquid supply at the heater surface. Acknowledgment

The work was partially supported by an National Science Foun-

dation grant FAIN - 2022614.
Authorship statement
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