Effects of forced wall vibration on the onset of flow instability and critical heat flux in uniformly-heated microchannels

Numerous experimental and theoretical investigations on two-phase flow instability and burnout in heated microchannels have been reported in the literature. However none of these investigations deals with the possible effects of wall vibrations on such flow boiling processes within microchannels. Fluid-structure interaction in ultra high power density systems cooled by high velocity single phase forced convection in microchannels may result in vibration amplitudes that are a significant fraction of the diameter of the channel. Such vibrations may significantly impact vapor bubble dynamics at the wall and, hence, the limiting heat fluxes corresponding to the onset of flow instability and/or burnout.; The primary purpose of this research was to experimentally quantify the effect of forced wall vibration on the onset of flow instability (OFI) and the critical heat flux (CHF) in uniformly-heated annular microchannels. The secondary interest of this investigation was to compare the experimental data collected in the single-phase regime to commonly used single-phase forced convection correlations. Experimental data acquired in the flow boiling regime were to be utilized to confirm the validity of common flow boiling correlations for microchannel flow. The influence of forced wall vibration on subcooled single-phase forced convection and flow boiling was examined. The Georgia Tech Microchannel Test Facility (GTMTF) was modified to allow such experiments to be conducted at controlled values of transverse wall vibration amplitudes and accelerations for a range of frequencies. The channel demand curves were obtained for various inner and outer surface heat fluxes. Experiments were conducted for broad ranges of transverse wall vibration amplitudes over a range of frequencies.; The experiments conducted in this investigation provide designers of high power density systems cooled by forced convection in microchannels with the appropriate data and correlations to confidently design systems under realistic operational conditions, including the potentially significant effects of fluid-structure interactions. The data also provides the basis for development and validation of future models on the effect of wall vibrations on bubble dynamics in flow boiling systems. The observed enhancements in OFI and CHF resulting from wall vibration suggest that correlations for undisturbed channels can be conservatively used for system design calculations.