Flow boiling of ethanol in small diameter tubes

Abstract

Paper presented at the 8th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Mauritius, 11-13 July, 2011.

Flow boiling occurs where the liquid is naturally circulated or is pumped through a heated channel, typically the tube. In flow boiling the liquid-vapor phase-change processes play an important role in many technological applications, Presented in the paper data partially explain the complex structure of two-phase laminar flow of ethanol in small diameter tubes. Accomplished were systematic investigations of flow boiling of ethanol in two tube dimensions, i.e. 1.15mm and 2.3mm. Utilised have been modern thermovisual techniques for measurements of wall temperature. Identified was the „M” shape distribution of heat transfer coefficient. This work partly explains the specific features of two-phase flow and heat transfer inside minichannels.