Subcooled Pool Boiling on Ultra-thin Strips of Varying Cross-sections

Abstract

The Boiling heat transfer phenomenon can be used for effectively cooling microelectronic chips. However, since these systems belong to such small length scales, and are in various shapes and sizes, the boiling phenomenon will be different from that observed in macro systems. The present study looks into the fundamental similarities/differences in the phenomenon by studying the growth of bubbles on ultra-thin strips. An experimental investigation is conducted to generate bubbles of various sizes on a unique double dog-bone shaped thin substrate. The growth and departure of the bubble generated on various sections of the substrate were studied. The bubbles observed on these different sections of an identical substrate were found to have considerable interdependency. Additionally, data generated is for very high subcooling that is not available in the literature. Bubble growth and departure model was developed, and preliminary results indicate improved bubble departure prediction capabilities across a wide range of subcooling.