DETERMINATION OF FLOW BOILING HEAT TRANSFER

COEFFICIENT IN CONVENTIONAL CHANNEL

Aim: To determine the subcooled flow boiling and saturated flow boiling heat transfer
coefficient of a given fluid in conventional channel.
Theory: When a heated surface of the wall exceeds the saturation temperature of the flowing
fluid, boiling occurs on the surface. If the bulk fluid temperature is below the saturation
temperature, boiling is referred to as subcooled boiling. If the bulk fluid temperature is equal
to the saturation temperature, then saturated boiling is said to occur. Bubbles formed on the
heated surface depart from the surface and are transported by the bulk fluid. In subcooled
boiling this process results in further heating of the fluid towards the saturation temperature. In
saturated boiling, bubbles can be transported along the entire length of the heated channel
without collapsing.

References:
Satish. G Kandlikar, Masahiro Shoji and Vijay Dhir., (1999), “Handbook of phase change:,
Taylor and Francis, pp. 79-98.

Tong L.S and Tang Y.S (1997). Text book on: Boiling Heat Transfer and Two Phase flow,
Taylor and Francis, 2: 248-265.
Wolverine Tube INC, Boiling Heat Transfer on Extended Surface, Engineering data handbook,
3: 9.1-9.38.

Experimental Set-up:
The schematic diagram of experimental test set up is shown in Figure 1. The experimental test
set up is a closed loop having a rectangular aluminum block consisting of two rectangular
channels, condenser coil dipped in ice water bath, reservoir, preheater and pump having
variable flow rate. The aluminum block consisting of two channels of 10 mm (width) × 10
mm (height) × 150 mm (Length). The two cartridge heaters are inserted inside the aluminum
block. Heat loss is prevented by providing mineral wool as insulating material. The wall
temperatures, the fluid inlet and outlet temperatures of the channel are measured by
thermocouples. The temperature reading is obtained in the temperature indicator panel. The
high speed camera is used for flow visualization.
 Table 1 shows the equipments used in the experiment. Figure2 shows the
thermocouples arrangement in the aluminum block to measure wall temperature and to
calculate heat flux. The first set of five thermocouples (T11, T12, T13, T14 andT15) are placed 2
mm below the channel in a row. The second set of five thermocouples (T21, T22, T23, T24 andT25)
are placed 20 mm below the first row of thermocouples. The distance between two
thermocouple in a row is 25 mm. Two cylindrical cartridge heaters are placed 40 mm below
the channels.The average of five heat fluxes and wall temperatures which are obtained from
five different points in the channel are considered to calculate the heat transfer coefficient.

Fig.1: Schematic diagram of experimental setup.

(1) Rectangular aluminum block consisting of two rectangular channels. (2) Condenser coil
dipped in ice water bath. (3) Reservoir. (4) Pump having variable flow rate. (5) Preheater. (6)
Cartridge heaters. (7)Thermocouples to measure wall temperature. (8) Channel inlet fluid
temperature measuring thermocouple. (9) Thermocouples to measure channel inlet and outlet
fluid temperatures. (10) Temperature indicator panel (11) High speed camera. (12) Light
source.(13) Data Aquisiation system for flow visualization.
 Fig 2: Arrangement of thermocouplesin the aluminum block.

Table 1: Equipment used in present experiment

Equipment Specifications

k-type thermocouples (12 no’s) Range :-20℃ to 400℃

Sheath length: 20 mm

Sheath diameter: 1.2 mm

Cartridge heater (2 no’s) Diameter: 12.7 mm

Length: 180 mm

Capacity: 750 W

Peristaltic pump Capacity: 100 liters per hour

Operating pressure: Atmospheric

Preheater Chamber capacity: 4 Liters

Heater capacity: 3 kW.

Calculations:
Bottom wall temperature of the channel is calculated by temperature gradient between the first
row and second row of thermocouples in aluminum block. Fourier’s law of heat conduction is
applied to calculate the heat flux from the measured values of temperature gradient and known
value of thermal conductivity.
𝑑𝑇
𝑞" = −𝑘 𝑑𝑥 (1)

The heat flux is calculated by substituting the values of thermal conductivity of aluminum,
temperature gradient in Equation (1) as shown by Equation (2).
 (𝑇𝑠𝑟 −𝑇𝑓𝑟 )
𝑞" = −𝑘 (𝑋 (2)
𝑠𝑟 −𝑋𝑓𝑟 )

q”= Heat flux, sr=second row, fr =first row, w=wall, X=position, k= Thermal conductivity of
aluminum block.
The heat flux is assumed to be the same for the bottom wall of the channel as the first row,
since it is very near to the first rows of thermocouples (i.e. 2 mm).The wall temperature is
calculated by Equation (3).
−𝑞"
𝑇𝑊 = (𝑋𝑤 − 𝑋𝑓𝑟 ) + 𝑇𝑓𝑟 (3)
𝑘

The heat transfer coefficient is calculated by Equation (4) from the calculated values of heat
flux, calculated values of wall temperature and measured values of outlet temperature. The
average of five readings of wall temperature is considered to determine the difference between
the wall and fluid temperature. Fluid temperature is the average fluid temperature at inlet and
outlet of the channel.
𝑞"
ℎ = (𝑇 (4)
𝑤 −𝑇𝑓 )

f=fluid and h=heat transfer coefficient

Results:
1. Graph of Heat flux vs. (𝑇𝑤 − 𝑇𝑠𝑎𝑡 )(wall super heat)
2. Graph of Flow boiling Heat transfer coeffient vs. (𝑇𝑤 − 𝑇𝑠𝑎𝑡 )

Uncertainty:
The uncertainty in the estimated parameter is _____________.
 EXPERIMENT ON POOL BOILING HEAT TRANSFER
Aim: To study the steady and transient pool boiling phenomenon.
Objective:
i) To find out heat flux and heat transfer coefficient at steady state condition.
ii) To find out the heat flux and heat transfer coefficient at various rate of heating for
transient heat input.
Theory: Boiling is a phase heat transfer process which has a capability to remove a tremendous
amount of heat generated from the rocket engines, superconductors, jet aircraft engines,
electronic devices and nuclear reactors. The wall superheat is the temperature difference
between the heater surface and the liquid. As the wall superheat is increased, until a certain
thermal condition is met, the incipient nucleation occurs. The different phases of the boiling
are shown in Fig.1, in which a typical experimental boiling curve obtained in a saturated pool
of liquid is drawn. The heat flux supplied to the surface is plotted against (Tw –Ts), the
difference between the temperature of the surface and saturation temperature of the liquid. It is
seen that the boiling curve can be divided into three regions:
I. Natural Convection Region
II. Nucleate Boiling Region
III. Film Boiling Region

The natural convection region occurs at low temperature differences (of the order of 10 oC or
less). Heat transfer from the heated surface to the liquid in its vicinity causes the liquid to be
superheated. This superheated liquid rises to the free liquid surface by natural convection. As
the temperature difference (Tw-Ts) is increased, nucleate boiling starts. In this region, it is
observed that bubbles start to form at certain locations on the heated surface. In the phase-II,
the bubbles formed are very few in number. They condense in the liquid and do not reach the
free surface. In the next phase-III, the rate of bubble formation as well as number of nucleation
sites increases. Some of the bubbles rises all the way to the free surface.
 Fig. 1: Steady state pool boiling curve [1]
With increasing temperature difference, a stage is finally reached when the rate of formation
of bubbles is so high, that they start to coalesce and thick vapour film forms over the heating
surface. This is the beginning of film boiling i.e. phase-IV where the vapour film is unstable
and it occupies the partial surface. In the phase-V, a stable film covers the entire surface. This
stable vapour film act as a barrier for the heat transfer from the surface and thus heat transfer
drops with the increase in the degree of superheat (∆𝑇). A radiative heat transfer across the
vapour film is significant mode of heat transfer during film boiling.

Experimental Set-up

The schematic of pool boiling set-up available in heat transfer laboratory is shown in Fig. 2.
 Fig. 2: Schematic of Pool boiling experimental set-up

The experimental setup shown in Fig. 2 consist of 200×200×350 mm3 square boiling chamber
made up of SS 304 fitted with flange at the top and at the bottom. The top flange has provisions
for liquid charging, condenser cooling water inlet and outlet. Bottom flange has provision to
insert test section in the chamber. The cooling water condenser is coiled in the upper section
inside the vessel and connected to a cooling water circulating pump to keep the vessel at
atmospheric pressure. A pressure transducer is located at the top of the vessel to measure the
pool pressure. The liquid bulk temperature (Tsat) and vapour temperature (Tv) are measured
using thermocouples. An auxiliary heater of 500W capacity is inserted into the vessel to heat
the liquid bulk to saturation temperature. The heating block includes a replaceable test surface
mounted on a copper cylindrical rod wrapped with nylon insulator. The 19mm diameter 7mm
thick circular test surface has a 15mm diameter 3mm thick groove which exactly fits on the
15mm diameter heater rod. To reduce thermal contact resistance between the test surface and
the heater rod, thermal grease is used. Resistance heater of 500W capacity is inserted into the
copper rod. Three K-type sheathed thermocouples (T1, T2, T3) of 1mm diameter are inserted
into the holes drilled along the axis of the rod close to the test surface as shown in Fig. 2, to
calculate the heat flux and the surface temperature. Two K-type sheathed thermocouples (T4,
T5) of 1mm diameter are inserted into the holes drilled in the insulation to calculate the radial
heat loss.
Procedure:
1. Take 1 liter of distilled water in the vessel and close it tightly.
2. Make the necessary connections.
3. Switch on the auxiliary heaters and boil the water vigorously for 1-2 hours for the
removal of dissolved gases.
4. Observe the fluid temperature and maintain it at saturated temperature.
5. Switch on the main heater. For the steady state, supply the heat at every 10 mins with
the increments of 10 W by autotransformer.
6. Note down the thermocouple readings.

Calculations
The heat flux dissipated to the boiling fluid and surface temperature can be estimated by the
three implanted thermocouples.
By using Taylor’s backward series approximation [2], we can get-
𝑑𝑇 3𝑇1 −4𝑇2 +𝑇3
𝑏 = 𝑑𝑥 = (1)
2∗∆𝑥

Where, ∆𝑥= distance between two thermocouple

The heat flux from the top test surface was calculated using Fourier 1-D conduction equation:
𝑑𝑇
𝑞 ′′ = −𝑘𝐶𝑢 𝑑𝑥 (2)

The surface temperature of the test piece was calculated by extrapolating the temperature
readings obtained from the three thermocouples provided along the length of the heater rod at
a distance of 10mm each. Heat Transfer coefficient can be estimated by Newton’s law of
cooling using saturated temperature of the fluid (Tf) and surface temperature (Ts) as-
𝑞′′
ℎ = (𝑇 −𝑇 (3)
𝑠 𝑓)

𝑘𝐶𝑢 = 385 W/mK

Observations:
Temperature readings (°𝑪) Fluid System
Heat Supply
Temperature, Pressure,
(W) T1 T2 T3
Tf (°𝑪) P (Bar)
 Heat flux (q) W/m2 Surface Heat transfer
temperature (Ts) coefficient (h)
W/m2K

Results:
3. Plot steady and transient state pool boiling curves i.e. q v/s ∆T.

4. Plot the graph- h v/s q.

Uncertainty:
The uncertainty in the estimated parameter is _____________.

References:
1. http://www.putnamlabs.com/Videos/Videos/BoilingCurve.jpg
2. Dwight Cooke, Satish G. Kandlikar, “Effect of open microchannel geometry on pool
boiling enhancement”, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012)
1004–1013.