Microchannel Article

International Journal of Thermal Sciences 85 (2014) 73e92
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
International Journal of Thermal Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijts
Review
Twenty first century cooling solution: Microchannel heat sinks

Sambhaji T. Kadam, Ritunesh Kumar*
Mechanical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, MP 453446, India
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Due to rapid evolution in a wide range of technologies in twentieth century, heat dissipation requirement
Received 8 February 2014 has increased very rapidly especially from compact systems. There is an urgent need for high-
Received in revised form performance heat sinks to ensure the integrity and long life of these petite systems. Use of forced
11 May 2014
convection cooling has been limited by the requirement of the excessively high flow velocity and
Accepted 11 June 2014
Available online
associated noise and vibration problems. Microchannel heat sink seems to be most reliable cooling
technology due to its superior command over heat carrying capability. Understanding the flow boiling
phenomena in microchannel heat sink experimentally and analytically has been topic of intense research
Keywords:
Microchannels
in twenty first century. In this review paper, the experimental studies on flow visualization, pressure
Flow visualization drop and heat transfer characteristics of microchannels presented by different researchers are summa-
Pressure drop rized. Some different flow patterns observed in microchannel geometry such as bubble nucleation in thin
Heat transfer coefficient film, periodic variation of flow pattern, flow circulation, bubble suppression and cross-channel flow are
Instability explained briefly. The influence of vapour quality, heat flux, mass flux and channel geometry on pressure
drop and heat transfer characteristics of microchannel are reported. Different correlations reported for
single and two phase heat transfer characteristics are compared. The comparative analysis showed that
available single phase and two phase correlations are inconsistence and large variation is observed
among these correlations for same channel geometry, fluid and operating condition. Different in-
stabilities associated with microchannels are also briefly presented.
© 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction industry need up to 103 W/cm2 [5] and fusion reactor and defence
application contain components that require heat flux removal rate
With advancement in almost all technology sectors, the world is of the order of 104 W/cm2 [6,7]. Kandlikar [8] reported that the use
moving towards miniaturization. Hence, it becomes necessary to of enhanced microchannel geometry may provide heat dissipation
remove high heat flux from highly compact systems such as high- rate up to 103 W/cm2. Heat dissipation requirement will continue to
performance computer chips, laser diodes and nuclear fusion and rise with more advancement in technologies and further reduction
fission reactors for ensuring their consistent performance with long in the size of these applications. Considering above facts, it can be
life. Heat generated per unit area has measured up to 104 W/cm2 concluded that microchannel heat sinks seem to be the plausible
(nuclear reactor). Microchannels and minichannels are naturally solution of twenty first century cooling problems.
well suited for this task, as they provide large heat transfer surface In order to overcome the problem of high heat flux removal
area per unit fluid flow volume. Hence, facilitating very high heat from small area, first time Tuckerman and Pease [9] had developed
transfer rate. Use of microchannels can be explored in various ap- microchannel heat sink made up of silicon to remove heat flux of
plications i.e. turbine blades, rocket engine, hybrid vehicle, 790 W/cm2 with water as working fluid. They found that the per-
hydrogen storage, refrigeration cooling, thermal control in micro- formance of VLSI circuit was accelerated with such type of micro-
gravity and capillary pump loops [1]. Heat flux removal require- channel heat sink. Keyes [10] carried out theoretical analysis of
ment varies significantly based on the type of application. For finned microchannel heat sink with conventional heat exchanger
densely packed integrated circuit (ICs) [2,3] and laser mirror [4] the theory and concluded that the size of fin and channel dimensions
maximum power flux reported is 102 W/cm2, aviation and VLSI could be optimized to provide maximum cooling under wide range
of application. Thermal performance tests were conducted on sili-
con and indium phosphate microchannel heat sinks by Phillips [4].
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 7324 240734; fax: þ91 7324 240761. He found that the thermal performance of microchannel heat sink
E-mail address: ritunesh@iiti.ac.in (R. Kumar). was approximately two times better than conventional channel
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2014.06.013
1290-0729/© 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
74 S.T. Kadam, R. Kumar / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 85 (2014) 73e92
heat sink. Missaggia et al. [11] developed a microchannel heat sink heat sink and different cross sections of microchannel used. It can
(40 channels of dimension (W, H) (100, 400) mm made through be concluded from Table 2 that majority of studies have been car-
etching on silicon wafer) for cooling of two dimensional high power ried out on copper and silicon substrate based test sections. Copper
density diode laser arrays, the use of microchannel heat sink pro- is very popular material in thermal process equipments due its high
vided significant increase in optical power output. thermal conductivity and silicon is good semiconductor extensively
Classification of the microchannel is controversial issues. Some used in VLSI and electronics industries. From Table 2, it can also be
authors have classified based on channel dimension, whereas concluded that most of studies have been carried out by using
others believe that it should be based on flow stability. Following is water or refrigerant as working fluid. Water is not an appropriate
the summery of criteria reported in literature to distinguish be- coolant for electronic devices due to its current carrying capability
tween microchannel and macrochannel. Kandlikar and Grande and corrosive nature, which may be responsible for complete
[12,13] had proposed the range as 10 D 200 mm and Mehendale burnout of electronic devices or scale formation hampering heat
et al. [14] had suggested the range as 1 D 100 mm for inden- transfer characteristics. However, common refrigerants used in
tifying microchannel, where D is the diameter of tube or smallest field of microchannel heat sink are R410A, R134a, FC-72, FC-77,
dimension for other cross-sections. Cornwell and Kew [15] and Kew HFE-7000 and HFE-7100. Table 3 compares thermo-physical
and Cornwell [16] had defined the confinement number (Co) in properties, ODP and GDP values of different refrigerant. Thermo-
order to distinguish between macro to microscale flow boiling as physical properties play an important role in boiling process like
given by Equation (1); high viscosity of liquid phase, stabilizes thin liquid layer in slug flow
and annular flow. Hence, ensure smooth boiling process (by slow-
" #1=2 ing down flow instabilities). Similarly, large density of vapour will
s facilitate boiling process by ensuring more energetic vapour bub-
Co ¼ (1) bles (vapour bubble will travel along heated wall after departure,
gðrl rv ÞD2h
discussed in the flow visualization section) are generated in boiling
As per their proposed criteria, channels with Co 0.5 can be process. High liquid density is not desirable as it tries to suppress
classified as microchannels, as influence of the gravity was sur- growth of bubble. Whereas, low enthalpy of vaporization, activates
passed by the surface tension above this level. large number of nucleation site at early stage. Hence, facilitating
Manufacturing of the microchannel of required shape and size boiling process and reduces the thermal non equilibrium of liquid
on required material is another major issue. Researchers have used and vapour phase. Thus, low enthalpy of vaporization also helps
different manufacturing techniques for the fabrication of micro- reducing the boiling instabilities associated with microchannel.
channel. Table 1 summarizes few of the typical manufacturing In this paper effort has been put to study different flow patterns
techniques and the type of microchannel produced. Kandlikar and observed, pressure drop characteristics, heat transfer characteris-
Grande [12,13] had reported that the technology to fabricate tics and flow instability in microchannels. Dependency of pressure
microchannels had quickly evolved from the miniaturization of drop and heat transfer characteristics of microchannels on various
traditional machining techniques (milling and sawing) to the parameters is described in pressure drop and heat transfer section.
adoption of modern techniques (anisotropic wet chemical etching, Eventually, instabilities associated with microchannels such as flow
dry plasma etching and surface micromachining, LASER cutting) reversal, pressure fluctuation, wall temperature fluctuation and
used in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. These tech- Ledinegg instability are addressed.
niques have changed the scenario of microchannel heat sink field,
lot of companies i.e. IBM Zurich Research laboratory, AAVID 2. Flow visualization
THERMALLOY, Furukawa electric Co., Ltd. and Siliton R&D Corpo-
ration have come in business related with microchannels. The study of different flow regimes that exist in microchannels
Table 2, presents the summary of geometric parameter of is important because the pressure drop and heat transfer charac-
microchannels, working fluid and operating conditions used by teristics can not be predicted accurately in absence of compre-
different researchers, Fig. 1 shows typical parallel microchannel hensive information about different types flow regime. It is very
difficult to predict the sequence of flow patterns in microchannels
unlike conventional channels without high speed photography. In
Table 1
conventional channels as explained by Thome [52], the sequence of
Different microchannel fabrication techniques.
flow pattern is bubbly, slug, churn, wispy-annular and annular flow
Author Process Material Dimensions in vertical flow, whereas for the horizontal flow bubbly, slug, plug,
(W, H) mm
annular, stratified, annular with mist and wave flow exists, as
Papautsky Electroplating Silicon and Rectangular, shown Fig. 2(a) and (b), respectively. In case of microchannels flow
et al. [17] glass W ¼ 300e1500,
patterns are quite different than conventional channels. Hence, two
H ¼ 50e100
Lee et al. [18] Micro-milling Copper Rectangular, phase flow pattern maps and flow boiling heat transfer methods
W ¼ 194e534, developed for macrochannels fail to predict behaviour of micro-
H ¼ 5*W channels through simple extrapolation. Pfahler et al. [53] carried
Wu and Photolithography Silicon Trapezoidal, out experiments on three different microchannels (W, H) (100, 8)
Cheng [19] method W1 ¼ 251, W2 ¼ 155.7,
H ¼ 56.5
(100, 17) and (53, 135). They found that the largest cross section
Mei et al. [20] Micro-moulding Copper and Rectangular, channel roughly followed NaviereStokes equation. However, as the
aluminium W ¼ 137e174, channel size reduced, they observed significant deviation from
H ¼ 400 NaviereStokes prediction.
Wu et al. [21] Deep reactive Silicon Rectangular,
In the last two decades various researchers have carried out flow
chemical etching W ¼ 483.4, H ¼ 50
Chen and Saw- Cutting Silicon Rectangular, visualization study on a single microchannel, multiple micro-
Garimella [22] W ¼ 100, H ¼ 389 channels and microtubes.
Lee et al. [23] Dry Etching Silicon Rectangular, Sobierska et al. [37] performed experiments using water in a
W ¼ 100, H ¼ 100 single rectangular microchannel (W, H) (2000, 860) and observed
Hwang et al. [24] Laser Mythacrylate Circular, Dh ¼ 8e20
bubbly, slug and annular flow. Lee and Mudawar [5] visualized the
S.T. Kadam, R. Kumar / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 85 (2014) 73e92 75
Table 2
Summary of microchannel geometry and operating parameters.
Sr no Author Fluid Microchannel geometry (W, H, D) (mm) Material Operating condition
1 Tuckerman and Water Rectangular, W ¼ 56, 50, 55, H ¼ 320, 287, 302 Silicon Pin ¼ 1e2 bar, q ¼ 1810e7900 kW/m2,
Pease [9] V_ ¼ 4.7 106e 8.6 106 m3/s
2 Peng and Wang [25] Dionised Rectangular, W ¼ 600, H ¼ 700 Stainless Tin ¼ 30e60 C, G ¼ 1480e3947 kg/m2 s
water steel
3 Qu and Mudawar [26] Water Rectangular, W ¼ 231, H ¼ 713, N ¼ 21 Copper G ¼ 135e402 kg/m2 s, Tin ¼ 30,
60 C, Pout ¼ 1.17 bar
4 Qu and Mudawar [27] Deionised Rectangular, W ¼ 215, H ¼ 821, L ¼ 44.8 mm Copper G ¼ 86e368 kg/m2 s, Tin ¼ 30, 60 C,
water Pout ¼ 1.13 bar
5 Steinke and Water Rectangular, W ¼ 214, H ¼ 200, L ¼ 57.15 mm Copper G ¼ 157e1782 kg/m2 s, q ¼ 5e930 kW/m2,
Kandlikar [28] Tin ¼ 22 C, Pout ¼ 1.13 bar, x ¼ 0e1
5 Coleman and R134a Dh ¼ 830, L ¼ 5 mm, N ¼ 18 ports G ¼ 185e785 kg/m2 s
Krause [29]
6 Lee et al. [30] Deionised Trapezoidal, W1 ¼ 102.8, W2 ¼ 59.18, Silicon q ¼ 1.47e449 kW/m2, G ¼ 170e477 kg/m2 s
Water H ¼ 30.1, N ¼ 1
7 Li et al. [31] Deionised Trapezoidal, W1 ¼ 100, W2 ¼ 41, H ¼ 41, N ¼ 2 Silicon q ¼ 12.4e303 kW/m2
water G ¼ 105e555 kg/m2 s
8 Lee and Mudawar [32] R134a Rectangular, W ¼ 231, H ¼ 713 mm Copper P ¼ 1.44e6.6 bar, xin ¼ 0.001e0.25,
xout ¼ 0.49esuperheated, q ¼ 316e938 kW/m2,
G ¼ 127e654 kg/m2 s
9 Kosar et al. [33] Water Rectangular, W ¼ 200, H ¼ 264, L ¼ 10 mm, N ¼ 5 Silicon q ¼ 280e4450 kW/m2, G ¼ 41e302 kg/m2 s
10 Ling et al. [34] Distilled D ¼ 13, 20, L ¼ 40e100 mm Silex glass At room temperature
water
11 Chen and FC-77 Rectangular, W ¼ 389, H ¼ 389, N ¼ 24 Silicon Tin ¼ 71 C, Pexit ¼ 1 atm., q ¼ 94e617 kW/m2,
Garimella [35] m_ ¼ 35, 47, 60 ml/min
12 Yun et al. [36] R410a Rectangular, Dh ¼ 1360 (N ¼ 8), 1440 (N ¼ 7) Tsat ¼ 0, 5, 10 C, q ¼ 10e20 kW/m2,
G ¼ 200e400 kg/m2 s
13 Sobierska et al. [37] Water Rectangular, W ¼ 860, H ¼ 2000, Copper Tsub ¼ 2e20 K, Tin ¼ 36.4e36.5, Pout ¼ 1 atm.,
L ¼ 330 mm, N ¼ 1 q ¼ 100 kW/m2, G ¼ 50e1000 kg/m2 s
14 Huh et al. [38] Deionised Rectangular, W ¼ 100, H ¼ 107 Silicon Pout ¼ 1 atm., q ¼ 200e530 kW/m2,
water G ¼ 170, 360 kg/m2 s
14 Qi et al. [39] Liquid Circular tube, D ¼ 531, 834, 1042, 1931, N ¼ 1 Stainless Re ¼ 10,000e90,000, system
nitrogen steel pressure ¼ 1e9 bar
15 Lee and Mudawar [5] HFE-7100 Rectangular, W ¼ 123.4e259, H ¼ 304.9e1041.3, Copper Tin ¼ 30 C, Pout ¼ 1.138 bar,
L ¼ 10 mm, N ¼ 24, 11 q ¼ 0e7500 kW/m2, G ¼ 670e6730 kg/m3 s
16 Wang et al. [40] Water Trapezoidal, W1 ¼ 427, W2 ¼ 208, H ¼ 146, N ¼ 8 Silicon Tin ¼ 35 C, q ¼ 184.2e485.5 kW/m2
17 Agostini et al. [41] R134a Circular, D ¼ 509, 790 Glass Tin ¼ 30 C, q ¼ 6.5e31.8 kW/m2,
G ¼ 200e1500 kg/m2 s, x ¼ 0.02e0.19
18 Singh et al. [42] Water Dh ¼ 142 constant, L ¼ 20 mm, b ¼ 1.24, 1.43, Silicon q ¼ 290e366 kW/m2, G ¼ 82.4e126.2 kg/m2 s
1.56, 1.73, 2.56, 3.6, 3.75, N ¼ 1
19 Ergu et al. [43] Distilled Water, Rectangular, W ¼ 3700, H ¼ 107.9, Acrylic Tin ¼ 25 C, for pressure drop:
Potassium L ¼ 35 mm, N ¼ 1 Re ¼ 100e845, for mass transfer: Re ¼ 18e550
ferricyanite
20 Schilder et al. [44] Ethanol and Circular tube, Dh ¼ 600, L ¼ 110 mm Glass Tin ¼ 23 C, G ¼ 158e317 kg/m2 s,
water q ¼ 50e97 kW/m2, Re ¼ 25e202
21 Krishnamurthy HFE-7000 Rectangular, W ¼ 200, H ¼ 243, L ¼ 10 mm, N ¼ 5, Silicon q ¼ 100e1100 kW/m2, G ¼ 350e827 kg/m2 s
and pales [45] pin: D ¼ 100 mm dia, N ¼ 24, pitch ratio ¼ 4
22 Balasubramanian Deionised Rectangular, W ¼ 300, aspect ratio ¼ 4, N ¼ 40 Copper Tin ¼ 90 C, q ¼ 1400 kW/m2,
et al. [46] water G ¼ 100e133 kg/m2 s
23 Megahed [47] FC-72 Rectangular, W ¼ 225, H ¼ 276, L ¼ 16 mm, N ¼ 45, Silicon q ¼ 7.2e104.2 kW/m2, G ¼ 99e290 kg/m2 s,
Three cross linked channel 500 mm wide, Xout ¼ 0.01e0.71
24 Barlak et al. [48] Distilled Circular, Dh ¼ 200e589, L/D ¼ 16e265 Stainless Tin ¼ 25 C, Re ¼ 100e1000
Water
25 Edel and Water Rectangular, W ¼ 201, H ¼ 266, L ¼ 25 mm, N ¼ 1 Brass Tin ¼ 64, 80, 98 C, m_ ¼ 0.41e0.82 ml/min
Mukherjee [49]
26 Lu and Pan [50] Water Rectangular varying cross section, inlet: W ¼ 100, Silicon G ¼ 99e293 kg/m2 s
H ¼ 76, outlet: W ¼ 560, H ¼ 76, N ¼ 10
27 Lee et al. [23] Water Rectangular, W ¼ 50, 100, H ¼ 46, 48, 100, Silicon Pin ¼ 1e10.15 bar, Tin ¼ 24 C,
L ¼ 64 mm, N ¼ 1 G ¼ 138.9 kg/m2 s
28 Park et al. [51] FC-72 Rectangular, Dh ¼ 67 (N ¼ 190), Dh ¼ 278 (N ¼ 95). Stainless Case I: Dh ¼ 67, q ¼ 0.6e3.6 kW/m2,
steel G ¼ 188e742 kg/m2 s
Case II: Dh ¼ 278, q ¼ 6e45.1 kW/m2,
G ¼ 449e1538 kg/m2 s
nucleate flow boiling at inlet, middle and outlet section of micro- on vertically upward microtubes of 531 and 1042 mm inner diam-
channel and related the flow patterns with boiling curve. Megahed eter using liquid nitrogen as working fluid. They reported bubbly
and Hassan [54] carried out experiments on 45 rectangular flow, slug flow, churn flow and annular flow as the main flow
microchannels (W, H) (225, 276) with FC-72 as working fluid over patterns. They also observed confined bubble flow (Fig. 3(a)), mist
wide range of the heat flux (q ¼ 60.4e130.6 kW/m2) and mass flux flow, bubble condensation (Fig. 3(b)) and flow oscillation in their
(G ¼ 341e531 kg/m2 s). They concluded that two phase flow in study. Two types of flow pattern were reported by Kawahara et al.
microchannel can be divided into three main flow regimes; bubble, [56]; (a) quasi-homogeneous (Fig. 3(c)): shorter gas plugs at high
slug and annular flow. Zhang and Fu [55] performed experiments liquid flux (b) quasi-separated (Fig. 3(d)): longer gas bubble
Bubbly, churn, slug-annular flows were absent for 50 and 100 mm

tubes. The serpentine-like gas flow was having meandering motion.
This was attributed to the strong effect of surface tension and liquid
viscosity in 50 and 100 mm tubes, which prohibited the turbulence.
Lee and Mudawar [61] carried out experiments to study the two
phase flow patterns in test specimen with 53 rectangular micro-
channels (W, H) (231, 713) for R134a at different heat flux and inlet
quality. They observed that bubbly flow regime and nucleate
boiling occurred only at low qualities (xe < 0.05) corresponding to
low heat fluxes. Whereas, annular film evaporation flow dominated
at high heat fluxes producing medium quality (0.05 < xe < 0.55) or
high quality (0.55 < xe < 1.0).
Chen and Garimella [35] carried out flow visualization study of
test specimen with 24 square microchannels of 389 mm side
Fig. 1. Parallel microchannel heat sink. dimension. They performed experiments under wide range of heat
and mass flux. They observed that at low heat fluxes, bubbly flow
was dominant, with the bubbles coalescing to form vapour slugs
surrounded by smooth and wavy liquid film at high gas flux. Ex- with increase in heat flux. At high heat fluxes, the flow regimes
periments were performed by mixing Nitrogen gas with distilled after slug flow in the downstream portion of the microchannels had
water and aqueous solution of ethanol on circular tube of diameter characteristic of alternating wispy-annular flow and churn flow
250 mm. Choi and Kim [57] carried out water and Nitrogen-gas two- (Fig. 4), while flow reversal was observed in the upstream region
phase flow experiments over range of superficial velocity of liquid near the microchannel inlet. They attributed the alternating flow
(0.06e1.0 m/s) and gas (0.06e72 m/s) on five different types of patterns to the flow reversal towards upstream and found that flow
rectangular microchannels (Dh ¼ 141, 143, 304, 322 and 490). They reversal continued as heat flux was increased and it lasted until the
reported the bubbly flow, slug bubble flow, elongated bubble flow complete dryout of the channel was reached.
(Fig. 3(e)), transition flow and liquid ring flow (Fig. 3(f)) in their Wang et al. [40] carried out flow visualization study in parallel
flow visualization study. The elongated bubble flow and the liquid microchannels with three different types of inlet/outlet configu-
ring flow are repeated periodically in transition flow. Choi et al. [58] rations. Type-A had inlet and outlet port perpendicular to the
observed bubbly flow, transition flow and liquid ring flow on microchannels. In Type-B, flow entering to and exiting from
rectangular microchannels of varying aspect ratio (a ¼ 0.16, 0.47, microchannels freely without restriction. Type-C had inlet re-
0.67, 0.92). They found that two phase flow became homogeneous strictions of triangular shape and flow entering with restriction and
with decrease in aspect ratio, which they attributed to decreased exiting without restriction in microchannels. They observed that
liquid thickness at low aspect ratio. Cornwell and Kew [15] con- the flow pattern changed with operating condition as well as inlet/
ducted experiments with R-113 flowing inside rectangular micro- outlet configuration. With B type configuration, steady bubbly/slug
channels of size (W, H) (1200, 900). They reported three flow flow regimes were observed for vapour quality xe < 0.044, in the
patterns isolated bubble (zbubbly flow), confined bubble and range from 0.044 < xe < 0.103, bubbly/annular alternating flow
annular flow in their experimental study. regimes were observed and for the value of vapour quality
Kasza et al. [59] performed experiments on small channel of xe > 0.103, annular/mist alternating flow were observed. With C
Dh ¼ 3.53 mm. They observed small size nucleating bubble under type configuration, bubbly, elongated bubble and annular flow
the thin liquid film that formed between channel wall and vapour were the main flow regimes observed.
core during the slug flow as shown in Fig. 3(g). Similar situation is Kashid et al. [62] reported circulation of the liquid behind
even possible in case of microchannels but observing such small bubble as shown in Fig. 3(k) within the liquid slug. Which they
vapour bubble underneath liquid layer is quite difficult in case of attributed to the formation of vacuum generated behind the rapidly
microchannels, dominating surface tension effect worsens the moving vapour bubble that caused the recirculation of liquid at
situation. nose of the upcoming bubble. They further concluded that the
Chung and Kawaji [60] performed experiments on four micro- recirculation may cause bubble distortion at tail of leading bubble
tubes (D ¼ 50, 100, 250, 530), using mixture of water and nitrogen or at nose of upcoming bubble. Agostini et al. [41] observed similar
gas as working fluid. They observed the bubbly, slug, swirling distortion at the tail of elongated bubbles in their study.
pattern in churn flow (Fig. 3(h)), serpentine-like gas core in churn Schilder et al. [44] observed in their flow visualization study
flow (Fig. 3(i)), liquid bridge in slug-annular flow (Fig. 3(j)) and fully that the bubble growth took place in both upstream and down-
developed annular flow for tubes with 250 and 500 mm diameter. stream directions leaving behind a thin evaporating wavy liquid
Table 3
Thermo-physical properties, global warming potential and ozone depletion potential index of different refrigerants.
Refrigerant Dynamic viscosity Liquid density Vapour density Thermal conductivity Enthalpy of evaporation Surface tension ODP GWP
(104 kg/m s) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (W/m K) (kJ/kg) (N/m)
R-134a 1.95 1206 32.35 0.081 177.78 0.0080 0 1300

R410a 1.84 1189 29.94 0.076 185 0.0091 0 1890
FC-72 6.40 1680 13.23a 0.057 88 0.0105 0 9000
FC-77 6.14 1664 16.63a 0.059 89 0.0130 0 9000
HFE-7000 6.00 1400 5.71 0.075 142 0.0124 0 400
HFE-7100 6.10 1520 9.87# 0.062 125 0.0136 0 320
R-600a 1.50 549 9.12 0.088 229 0.0101 0 4
R290 0.97 492 21.18 0.094 335 0.0070 0 3
Courtesy: properties collected from various websites and product data sheets.
a
Ts ¼ 56.6 C, # Psat ¼ 1 bar, ODP ¼ Ozone Depletion Potential.
Fig. 2. Flow patterns in conventional channel (a) vertical channel, (b) horizontal channel.
film on the tube. They attributed the shear between vapour and This pressure suppressed preceding bubble, hence the size of pre-
liquid phase during slug flow for the formation of wavy pattern on ceding bubble was reduced as shown in Fig. 5(c). This smaller size
the film surface. Lee et al. [23] also carried out similar flow visu- bubble again started growing, when larger bubble pushed enough
alization study for microchannel with single artificial cavity. An liquid out of the channel for decreasing built up pressure as shown
explosive bubble growth was observed at cavity due to high degree in Fig. 5(d). The small vapour bubble growth continued until it
of superheat at artificial nucleation site. Krishnamurthy and Peles pushed larger bubble out of the channel, as shown in Fig. 5(e).
[45] observed the flow for rectangular microchannels Entire process repeated itself in the same sequence after some time
(Dh ¼ 222 mm) containing a single row of 24 pin fin of 100 mm in interval.
diameter. Flow visualization revealed the existence of isolated David et al. [64] performed experiments with single copper
bubbles, bubbles interacting (Fig. 3(l)), multiple flow and annular microchannel (W, H) (124, 94) using mixture of air and water as
flow. working fluid. One side wall of the microchannel was made up off
Barber et al. [63] had observed the variation in interfacial ve- the hydrophobic Teflon membrane of 65 mm thicknesses and
locities of growing vapour slug over time along with bubble 220 nm pore diameter in order to study the effect of venting pro-
nucleation and growth in a single microchannel (Dh ¼ 727) using cess. This wall acted as venting wall, which helped in removing the
refrigerant FC-72. The downstream end of the bubble was called as air only through it, thus avoiding instability due to vapour locking.
nose and upstream end was named as bubble tail. The tail and the Air was injected from opposite site of hydrophobic thin membrane.
nose moved with same velocity until bubble was not confined. They also observed that with increase in inlet air flow, flow patterns
After confinement, tail velocity was reduced due to inertia of followed sequence of bubble, wavy, wavy-stratified, stratified, slug
incoming fluid suppressing the bubble tail. Whereas, the bubble annular, annular at constant water flow rate. At higher water flow
nose velocity increased as negligible resistance of fluid was present rates, jetting type breakup was observed and no air venting could
in downstream direction. take place as annular flow followed by jetting type breakup. Table 4
Megahed [47] carried out flow visualization study on 45 straight presents main summary of few important flow visualization
microchannels (Dh ¼ 727) connected through three cross-links of studies.
width 500 mm. They carried out experiments under heat flux range Use of flow map for predicting two phase pattern is extremely
(37e69.6 kW/m2), mass flux range (109e195 kg/m2 s) and vapour popular and well established for conventional size channels
quality range (0.2e0.4). They observed only slug flow under entire [65e69]. Flow map is basically twoedimensional graph with
range of experimentation. They did not observe transition from slug transition criteria for separating various flow regimes of two phase
flow to annular flow, which they attributed to transverse flow flow. As the state is transformed towards boundary (separating two
within the cross link. regimes), it become unstable and further transition beyond
Edel and Mukherjee [49] observed that elongation of the vapour boundary converts flow patterns. Few authors have tried to develop
bubble after confinement Fig. 5(a)e(b) resulted into suppression of flow map for microchannel. Perhaps, Triplett et al. [70] were the
preceding vapour bubble. As vapour bubble started expanding after first to develop flow map for microchannel. They identified the
confinement, pressure spike was generated in upstream direction. transition boundaries between different flow patterns using gas
Fig. 3. Various types of flow patterns in microchannel (a) confined bubble flow [55], (b) bubble condensation [55], (c) quasi-homogeneous flow [56], (d) quasi-separated flow [56],
(e) elongated bubble flow [57], (f) liquid ring flow [57], (g) bubble nucleation in the liquid film [59], (h) swirling pattern in churn flow [60], (i) serpentine-like gas core in churn flow
[60], (j) liquid bridge in slug-annular flow [60], (k) circulation in microchannel [62], (l) bubble interacting [45].
liquid superficial velocities as coordinates. Harirchian and Gar- higher gas superficial velocity as the channel dimension is reduced
imella [71] developed comprehensive flow regime map for FCe77 from 324 mm to 100 mm.
using non dimensional form of heat flux (Bl$Re) as abscissa and From the reviewed literature related to flow regime map, it has
convective confinement number (Bo0.5Re) as ordinate on flow map. been observed that exact location of the transition boundaries on
They also suggested new transition criteria (Bo0.5Re < 160) for flow map varies dramatically even for microchannels of same ge-
physical confinement in microchannel. Sur and Liu [72] developed ometry under same flow conditions. More efforts are needed for
flow map for adiabatic air water two phase flow using modified developing comprehensive flow map for microchannels.
Weber number (WeG (D/l)2, WeL) as X and Y coordinates. They also Authors have also studied complete bubble dynamics in
observed that boundary of the annular flow regimes shifted to microchannel since its inception through flow visualization. Bubble
Fig. 4. Periodic variation of flow patterns with time (Chen and Garimella [35]).
dynamics (bubble nucleation, growth, departure and its motion nucleation is possible only if the minimum surrounding tempera-
along the flow) plays an important role in heat transfer and pres- ture of nucleation site being at least equal to the saturation tem-
sure drop characteristics as well as various flow instabilities during perature corresponding to liquid pressure. Bubble growth at
two phase flow of microchannels. First step in the bubble dynamics nucleation site is divided between two regions; inertia controlled
is the inception of the bubbles at active nucleation site. Basically, region and diffusion controlled region (Lee et al. [30]; Meder [75]).
nucleation site is small cavity, where the phase change process In the initial stage size of bubble is very small, bubble growth is
starts. Bubble grows for certain duration at nucleation site then it governed by the reaction force of the surrounding liquid at the
departs from it. Bubble departure diameter from nucleation site bubble interface. This stage is called as inertia controlled region. As
governs subsequent bubble dynamics. If departure diameter is the bubble starts growing, thermal diffusion (between vapour
around equivalent to channel dimension (in case of high heat flux liquid interface and surrounding liquid) effect increases. Once it
or very small sized microchannel) then confinement may occurs at overcomes inertia effect, subsequent bubble growth is governed
nucleation site itself [30,31]. Bubble basically do not detach in such entirely by thermal diffusion process [76]. Liu et al. [73] observed
case before start of confinement process. However, if bubble de- linear bubble growth at nucleation site from its inception to the
parture diameter is small in comparison to channels dimension departure. Whereas, Lee et al. [30] observed explosive bubble
then bubble starts travelling along the flow direction [73] at heated growth also for a few combinations of heat flux and mass flux
surface after departing from nucleation site. Once bubble diameter values. However, they failed to explain reason behind explosive
grows equivalent to channels dimension then confinement process bubble growth. In case of Lee et al. [77] experimental study, bubble
initiates. The bubble growth process rapidly increases after this due even stretched away in flow direction during its growth at nucle-
to heating from side walls. Once bubble confines complete cross ation site. Further, they observed that bubble confined entire
section then starts elongating in flow direction. Elongated bubble channel cross-section before departing from the nucleation site.
finally leaves the microchannel or may lead to flow reversal phe- Kew and Cornwell [16] were first to report the confined bubble
nomena (explained in instability section) at high heat flux values. growth in case of the small tube. Barber et al. [63] classified the
Fig. 6 shows complete bubble dynamics for microchannel. confinement as the partial confinement (Dbubble ¼ min (W, H)) and
Hsu [74], first time proposed the phenomena of bubble incep- full confinement (Dbubble ¼ max (W, H)). They observed that partial
tion at nucleation site during boiling. As per his theory bubble confinement produced both radial and elongated growth, whereas
Fig. 5. Sequence of interacting bubble suppression in microchannel (Edel and Mukherjee [49]).
Table 4 very small, it is expected that single phase pressure drop per unit
Summary of important flow visualization studies. length associated with microchannel will be much higher than
Author Remark macrochannels under same operating conditions. Boiling in
Kasza et al. [59] Bubble growing pattern inside thin liquid
microchannels even promotes the two phase pressure drop asso-
film (below vapour slug) tries to avoid early ciated in comparison to conventional size channels. In spite of be-
occurrence of dryout condition ing associated with large pressure drop, microchannel heat sinks
Chung and Kawaji [60] They studied effect of microtube diameter had attracted lot of attention due to their strong command over
on flow pattern
heat transfer characteristics. Large pressure drop is responsible for
Lee and Mudawar [61] Bubbly, slug, alternating wispy-annular
flow and churn flow huge power consumption of the pump utilized. Thus, the study of
Schilder et al. [44] Temporary dryout can even initiate at pressure drop in microchannels is equally important similar to
low vapour quality due to instable liquid film other aspects associated. Two phase flow/pressure drop can be
Instability issues are more severe in case of
modelled using the homogeneous flow model and separated flow
low viscous flow
Krishnamurthy Extended surface can help in mitigating
model. In homogeneous flow model, two phases (liquid phase and
and Peles [45] early stage flow instability vapour phase) are treated as a single phase. Another fundamental
Megahed [47] Flow stability can be improved by mass assumption of homogeneous model is that liquid and vapour have
flux retardation from downward direction equal velocity. The separated flow model considers the phases to be
Edel and Mukherjee [49] Instability issues easily provoke in case
artificially segregated into two streams, one contains only liquid
of single microchannel
David et al. [64] Bubbly flow was observed towards the and anther contains only vapour. The fundamental assumption of
end of channel due to air venting by the separated flow model is that liquid and vapour have constant
hydrophobic membrane but not necessarily equal velocities. The pressure drop across the
channel is mainly dependent on the fluid properties (density, vis-
cosity and surface tension), mass flux (flow velocity, mass flow rate
full confinement was coupled with elongated growth only. Fu et al. or Reynolds number), effective heat supplied (wall temperature),
[78] carried out bubble growth study before and after bubble de- vapour quality and channel geometry (aspect ratio, hydraulic ratio
parture from nucleation site for minichannel (D ¼ 1.3e1.5 mm) and cross section). Various researchers have studied the effect of
using nitrogen as working fluid. They reported linear and constant these parameters on the pressure drop characteristics of
bubble growth in both cases. Gedupudi et al. [79] carried out ex- microchannels.
periments for the studying the growth of confined bubble in rect- Researchers have carried out pressure drop analysis in single
angular microchannel using water as working fluid. They observed phase, two phase with subcooled and saturated inlet condition in
exponential bubble growth after confinement from microchannel microchannels. Very few studies have been carried out in single
wall. Yin et al. [80] concluded that elongation of the bubble after phase mode. Qu and Mudawar [82] carried out experimental and
confinement is influenced by effective heat supplied and bubble numerical study to predict the pressure drop for single phase in
moving velocity along the flow. Recently, Tuo and Hrnjak [81] rectangular microchannel heat sink using water as working fluid.
carried out complete bubble dynamic study using R134a refrig- They observed that pressure drop reduced with increase in heat
erant. They observed linear bubble growth before confinement and flux at constant Reynolds number. They accredited it to the
exponential bubble growth in axial direction after confinement. decrease in viscosity of water at elevated temperature. Ergu et al.
Exponential bubble growth was accredited to intensive evaporation [43] carried out experiments in the range of Reynolds number from
of thin liquid layer trapped between vapour bubble and micro- 100e845 using water as working fluid on rectangular microchannel
channel wall. (W, H) (3700, 107.4). They observed that pressure drop increased
linearly with Reynolds number and concluded that single phase
3. Pressure drop pressure drop behaviour of microchannel is very much similar to
the macrochannel for laminar flow region. Barlak et al. [48] con-
It is of significant interest to understand the pressure drop ducted experiments on microtubes (D ¼ 200, 250, 400, 505 and
characteristics across microchannel, when designing applications 589) having L/D ratio in the range of 16e265 using water as cooling
based on microchannel. As hydraulic diameter of microchannel is fluid. They observed that at low Reynolds number (Re < 2000),
Fig. 6. Complete bubble dynamics in microchannel.

pressure drop was weak function of L/D ratio and linear relation-
ship existed between pressure drop and Reynolds number.
Whereas, pressure drop was strongly dependent on L/D ratio at
high Reynolds number. Unlike large diameter tubes, smaller
diameter tubes faced a noticeable change in pressure drop with L/D
ratio beyond Re > 2000. Ling et al. [34] carried out pressure drop
analysis on circular tubes of 13 and 20 mm diameter and length
ranging from 40 to 100 mm under pressure driven force condition.
Linear relationship between the flow rate and pressure drop was
projected by them. They further concluded that the flow charac-
teristics of the microtubes are basically in agreement with macro-
scopic liquid flowing lows. Qi et al. [39] carried out pressure drop
study on different diameter tubes (D ¼ 531, 834, 1042 and 1931) of
constant length (L ¼ 250 mm) in the range of Reynolds number
104e9 104. They observed that the total single phase pressure
drop increased with increase in mass flux and decrease in tube
diameter. It was also observed that friction factor obeyed conven-
tional channel theory for tubes having diameter of 1042 and
1931 mm. However, for the 531 and 834 mm tubes, friction factor
value deviated from conventional channel theory. They attributed it
to the effect of the surface roughness on friction factor in case of
small tubes. Akbari et al. [83] carried out pressure drop analysis on Fig. 7. Normalized plot of pressure drop versus wall heat flux for subcooled boiling
(Lee and Mudawar [85]).
rectangular microchannels of varying aspect ratio in the range of
0.13e0.76. They observed that pressure drop increased with in-
crease in the aspect ratio. However, it increased very rapidly as the
width of channel also approached to the limiting criteria of two phase, effect of frictional pressure drop supersede gravitational
microchannel. They also characterized different type of losses such effect.
as contraction and expansion loss, developing region and fully Yun et al. [36] carried out two phase experiments on micro-
developed region loss and loss due to electro-viscous effect. Peiyi channels of hydraulic diameter of 1.44 mm. They found that pres-
and Little [84] carried out single phase experiments on nitrogen, sure drop increased with increase in mass flux at constant
hydrogen and argon gas with eight different microtubes having saturation temperature. At given mass flux, pressure drop
diameter ranging from 55.81 to 83.08 mm. They concluded that decreased with increase in saturation temperature, which they
friction factor is dependent on the channel geometry, roughness attributed to change in viscosity and density of R410A.
and mass flux. Lee and Mudawar [32] carried out experiments using R134a to
Two phase pressure drop is of significant interest as far as flow study the pressure drop characteristics in microchannels. Based on
boiling in microchannels is concerned. Fig. 7 shows the variation of combined pressure drop data of R134a and water (Qu and Mudawar
pressure drop for single phase and two phase with respect to [86]), they developed two phase pressure drop multiplier empirical
00 00
ðq =qsat Þ for subcooled boiling and saturated boiling region in relations for separated flow model incorporating liquid viscosity
horizontal orientation of microchannel, following Lee and Muda- and surface tension effect. These correlations were used to examine
war [85]. In the single phase, pressure drop is primarily governed the effect of vapour quality, heat flux and mass flux on total pres-
by the behaviour of liquid viscosity with temperature. For fluid like sure drop characteristics of R134a. They found that at constant heat
water pressure drop reduces with increase in wall heat flux at flux total pressure drop decreased with an increase in exit vapour
constant mass flux due to decrease in liquid viscosity for single quality, which they attributed to decrease in mass velocity. They
phase region. Pressure drop reduction starts decreasing once onset also found that for constant mass flux, pressure drop increased up
on nucleate boiling (ONB) condition is approached. ONB is the to particular heat flux value beyond which pressure drop became
location, where the first bubble forms. ONB indicates the termi- constant or slightly decreased. Up to particular heat flux value, two
nation of single phase flow and inception of the subcooled boiling phase frictional and accelerational losses increases due to conver-
region as shown in Fig. 7. Formation of bubble introduces two phase sion of liquid into vapour. After complete conversion into vapour,
pressure drop components, frictional and acceleration. The two phase frictional loss decreases but it is compensated by the
magnitude of these components increases with increase in heat increase in single phase vapour pressure loss. However, accelera-
flux due to growth of vapour bubble or due to formation of new tion loss remains at same value over complete conversion into
bubble at newly activated nucleation sites. They try to pull up vapour phase. Thus total pressure drop remained constant or
pressure drop associated with microchannel unlike viscosity. In slightly decreased beyond particular heat flux value. Balasu-
subcooled boiling region pressure drop initially reduces after ONB bramanian et al. [46] had reported increasing trend of pressure
and attains minima. This was attributed to the higher degree of drop for the variation of heat flux at constant mass flux in stepwise
subcooling, which suppressed the bubble growth initially after expanding microchannels with deionised water. However, they
ONB. On further increase of heat flux beyond minima condition, the observed that in stepwise expanding microchannels pressure drop
vapour bubble pressure drop components become dominating. decreased with increase in mass flux, which was due to increase in
Therefore, pressure drop starts increasing with increase in heat mass flux (inducing reduction in saturation flow length). Reduction
flux. This trend continued even in saturated boiling region. How- in saturation flow length reduces the magnitude of two phase
ever, in case of the vertical orientation gravitational pressure drop/ pressure drop per unit length, which is substantially higher than
gain (upward flow/downward flow) will influence pressure drop magnitude of single phase pressure drop per unit length. They also
characteristics of both single and two phase flow. Gravitational observed that pressure drop associated with stepwise expanding
pressure drop/gain is more dominating than frictional pressure microchannel was smaller than straight microchannel, which they
drop in case of single phase flow. As flow shifts from single phase to attributed to the deceleration of vapour in downstream direction.
Megahed [47] carried out pressure drop analysis of cross linked occurrence of minima, they speculated in favour of the opposite
rectangular microchannels. They observed that two phase pressure nature of frictional and accelerational pressure drop with respect to
drop increased linearly with exit vapour quality at a given mass flux aspect ratio. With increase in b, acceleration pressure drop
and it increased very rapidly with increase in mass flux at constant decreased and frictional pressure drop increased.
vapour quality. They further reported slight increases in slope of Choi and Kim [57] and Choi et al. [58] carried out experiments
pressure drop verses vapour quality line at low mass fluxes using water liquid-nitrogen gas adiabatic two phase flow in
(G ¼ 111, 141 kg/m2 s) and rapid increase in slope at high mass microchannel. They concluded that the typical two phase pressure
fluxes (G ¼ 191, 245, 290 kg/m2 s). They accredited it in favour of drop characteristics of microchannel can be divided in three re-
presence of cross links between microchannels. The presence of gions. Region I: Bubbly flow regime, including bubbly, slug bubble
cross link also increased associated sudden expansion and and elongated bubble, Region II: transition flow region, Region III:
contraction pressure losses in addition to increase in pressure loss Liquid ring flow regime. In the Region I, number of bubbles
due to cross flow. Furthermore, they also compared experimental amplified the pressure drop on increase in superficial gas velocity.
two phase pressure drop data with pressure drop correlations In the Region II, pressure drop decreased due to collapse of elon-
published by Lee and Garimella [87] for straight microchannels. gated bubble on increase in superficial gas velocity. In the Region III,
They found that two phase pressure drop in cross link micro- pressure drop increased very rapidly with increase in superficial
channels is almost 1.5 times greater than regular straight micro- gas velocity.
channels over tested range of mass flux, except at minimum value Table 5 summarizes relations proposed by different researches
of mass flux (G ¼ 111 kg/m2 s). From Balasubramanian et al. [46] to predict pressure drop across microchannels. Bowers and
and Megahed [47] experimental study, it can be concluded that Mudawar [89] considered the total pressure drop as summation of
expanding microchannels have superior pressure drop character- the single phase, two phase frictional, two phase acceleration and
istics than straight and cross link microchannels. Sobierska et al. two phase outlet pressure drop components. Qu and Mudawar [86]
[37] carried out experiments using water as working fluid on a split the single phase pressure drop into the developing and the
straight vertical single rectangular microchannel in the range of fully developed region pressure drop components and also intro-
mass flux from 50 to 1000 kg/m2 s. They also observed that pres- duced contraction and expansion pressure drop components to
sure drop associated with two phase increases with increase in calculate exact total pressure drop associated in microchannels. In
mass flux and exit vapour quality separately. However, pressure two phase flow, vapour has higher velocity than the liquid due to its
drop increased moderately in the range of mass flux (50e300 kg/ low density in comparison to corresponding liquid phase. In order
m2 s) and rapidly beyond of it. Megahed and Hassan [54] and Park to accommodate this effect of liquid and vapour, Lee and Mudawar
et al. [51] measured experimentally the pressure drop per unit [32] defined two phase frictional pressure drop component in
length across rectangular microchannels. In both works, it was terms of two-phase pressure drop multiplier (∅). Two phase
observed that pressure drop per unit length increased with in- pressure drop multiplier was defined in terms of Martinelli
crease in mass flux and vapour quality respectively. Megahed and parameter (X) and two-phase multiplier parameter (C), which
Hassan [54] attributed this behaviour to the impact of void fraction defined the type of the two phase flow (Table 5). Megahed [47]
on pressure drop. Park et al. [51] used rectangular microchannels introduced dynamic two phase pressure drop component, which
(Dh ¼ 61 and 278 mm) in their experimental study on refrigerant FC accounted for the enlargement at outlet and bends of
72. They observed that for a microchannel (Dh ¼ 278 mm) at mass microchannels.
flux of G ¼ 112 kg/m2 s, the pressure drop increased continuously
beyond vapour quality of 0.9. This was attributed to the absence of 4. Heat transfer
turbulent wave at higher vapour qualities because of very thin
liquid film. Eventually, they concluded that existing macroscale Heat transfer coefficient is the most important parameter gov-
pressure drop correlations could not be directly used for microscale erning the usefulness of microchannel heat sinks. Heat transfer
(below Dh ¼ 100 mm) due to change in flow patterns below this coefficient for flow boiling in microchannels is impressively high
dimension. due the combined effect of very small hydraulic diameter and
Phan et al. [88] analysed experimentally the effect of surface associated latent heat of evaporation. Heat transfer coefficient is
wettability on two phase pressure drop using four test-sections primarily influenced by fluid properties (density and viscosity),
having single rectangular microchannel (W, H) (5000, 500) and mass flux, effective heat flux, channel geometry (cross section area
coated with hydrophilic (polydimethylsiloxane (SiOx), titanium (Ti), and aspect ratio) and vapour quality. Various researchers had car-
diamond like carbon (DLC)) and hydrophobic (poly- ried out experimental studies in single phase as well as two phase
dimethylsiloxane (SiOC)) substances. These surfaces had static heat transfer in microchannels. However, major focus had been
contact angle of 29 , 49 , 63 and 103 respectively. They found that given to two phase heat transfer studies.
at a given mass flux and exit vapour quality, two phase pressure Peng and Wang [25] studied the effect of force convection on
drop increased significantly with increase in static contact angle, single phase heat transfer characteristics using rectangular micro-
which they attributed to the effect of contact angle on surface channels (W, H) (700, 600). They observed that decrease in liquid
tension force generated. For unwetted surface (SiOC) having higher subcooling and increase in flow velocity induced steep increase in
contact angle, surface tension force intended to maintain the heat transfer coefficient. Wang and Peng [90] also carried out single
bubble at the solid wall, which resulted into increase in frictional phase forced convection study using six heat sinks of microchannel
pressure drop. On the other hand for wetted surface (SiOx), surface dimensions (W, H, N) (800, 700, 4), (600, 700, 4), (400, 700, 4), (400,
tension helped in proper wetting of the surface. Thus, wetted sur- 700, 6), (200, 700, 4) and (200, 700, 6) using water as working fluid.
faces were subjected to low two phase pressure drop in comparison They observed three different trends for the variation of single
to unwetted surface. phase heat transfer coefficient in above microchannels. In first the
Singh et al. [42] investigated the effect of aspect ratio (b ¼ W/ trend on (800, 700, 4) heat sink, heat transfer coefficient smoothly
H ¼ 1.23, 1.44, 1.56, 1.73, 2.56, 3.6 and 3.75) of rectangular micro- increased with wall temperature.
channel theoretically as well as experimentally. They observed that In second trend on (600, 700, 4), (400, 700, 4) and (400, 700, 6)
the pressure drop first reduced with increase in b, attained minima heat sink, steep increase in heat transfer coefficient at low wall
at b ¼ 1.56, then started increasing rapidly with increase in b. The temperature was observed. This was followed by moderate increase
Table 5
Summary of pressure drop correlations for microchannel.
Author Channel geometry and Operating condition Correlations

fluid (W, H, D) mm
Bowers and Circular, D ¼ 2540, 510 Pin ¼ 1.38 bar, DPT ¼ DPsp þ DPf þ DPa þ DPout, nh
Mudawar [89] R113 Tsub ¼ 10e32 C, 2 v
G fg
m ¼ 19e95 ml/min DPa ¼ rf ðxL Þ
vf
Subcooled boiling and 2fsp G2 Lsp
DPsp ¼ rf D
saturated boiling
h v i
2ftp G2 Lb fg
DPf ¼ rf D 1 þ x2L
vf
h v i
2ftp G2 Lo fg
DPout ¼ rf D h 1 þ xL
vf
fsp ¼ 64/Re, ftp ¼ 0.005
Qu and Rectangular, W ¼ 231, Tin ¼ 30, 60 C, DPT ¼ DPc1 þ DPc2 þ DPsp,dev þ DPsp,fdev þ DPf þ DPa þ DPe1 þ DPe2
Mudawar [86] H ¼ 713 Pout ¼ 1.17 bar, vf 2 v K
DPc1 ¼ ðG G21 Þ þ f c1 G22
Deionised water G ¼ 134.9e400.1 kg/m2 s 2 2 2
Subcooled boiling and vf 2 v K
DPc2 ¼ ðG G22 Þ þ f c2 G2
saturated boiling 2 2
vf þ xe vfg 2 ðvf þ xe vfg Þ 2 NA 2
DPe1 ¼ ðG1 G22 Þ þ Ke1 G2 , Ke1 ¼ 1
2 2 Ap2
!2
vf þ xe vfg 2 ðvf þ xe vfg Þ 2 Ap2
DPe2 ¼ ðG2 G2 Þ þ Ke2 G , Ke2 ¼ 1
2 2 Ap1
2fapp G2 Lsp;dev vf
DPsp;dev ¼
Dh
fsp,devResp,dev ¼ 24 (1 1.355b þ 1.947b2 1.701b3 þ 0.956b4 0.254b5)
GDh W
Resp;d ¼ ; b¼
msp;dev H
2fapp G2 Lsp;fdev vf
DPsp;fd ¼
Dh
2 3
1:089
6 þ þ fsp;fdev Resp;dev 3:44ðLþ Þ0:5 7
1 6 ð4Lsp;fdev Þ sp;fdev
7
fapp ¼ 63:44ðLþ Þ0:5 þ 7
Resp;fdev 6
4
sp;fdev
1 þ 1:31 104 ðLþ Þ2 7
5
sp;fdev
Lsp;fdev GDh
Lþ ¼ ; Resp;fdev ¼
sp;fdev Resp;fdev Dh msp;fdev
fsp,fdevResp,fdev ¼ 24 (1 1.355b þ 1.947b2 1.701b3 þ 0.956b4 0.254b5)
" !#
2ftp G2 Ltp vf xe vfg
DPf ¼ 1þ ; ftp ¼ 0:003
dh 2 vf
DPa ¼ G2vfxe
Lee and Rectangular, W ¼ 231, P ¼ 1.44e6.6 bar, DPT ¼ DPc þ DPf þ DPa þ DPsp,g DPe
" #"
2 #
Mudawar [32] H ¼ 713 mm xin ¼ 0.001e0.25, vfg xe; in
DPc ¼ G2vf
2
1
þ 1 s121 1þ
R134a xout ¼ 0.49esuperheated, Cc c vf
q ¼ 316e938 kW/m2, " #
G ¼ 127e654 kg/m2 s 2
vfg xe;out
DPe ¼ G se ð1 se Þvf 1 þ
Saturated boiling vf
2Lsp;g 2
DPsp;g ¼ Dh fsp;g G vg
fsp,gReg ¼ 24(1 1.3553b þ 1.947b2 1.701b3 þ 0.956b4 0.254b5) for Reg <2000
fsp;g ¼ 0:079Re0:25
g for 2000 < Reg < 20,000
fsp;g ¼ 0:046Re0:2
g for 20,000 < Reg
(" # " 2 #) " 2=3 #1
v g x 2
e;out vf ð1 xe;out Þ2 vg xe;in vf ð1 xe;in Þ2 1x vf
DPa ¼ G2 þ þ a¼ 1þ
aout ð1 aout Þ ain ð1 ain Þ x vg
Z
2G2 Ltp xo C 1
DPf ¼ f ð1 xÞvf ∅2f dx; ∅2f ¼ 1 þ þ 2 ; X 2 ¼ ½ðdP=dzÞf =ðdP=dzÞg
Dh xe xi f X X
Cvv ¼ 2:15Re0:047
l
We0:6
l
laminar liquid-laminar vapour
Cvt ¼ 1:45Re0:25
l
We0:23l
laminar liquid-turbulent vapour
Megahed [47] Rectangular, W ¼ 225, q ¼ 7.2e104.2 kW/m2, DPT ¼ DPsp þ DPtp

H ¼ 276 G ¼ 99e290 kg/m2 s, r 4fsp; l Lsub
DPsp ¼ f þ Kc þ K∞ u2ch þ 2K90 u2
FC-72 Xout ¼ 0.01e0.71 2 Dh
subcooled boiling and _ p ðTsat Tin Þ
mc
saturated boiling Lsub ¼
qA
2 4 5
fsp; l ¼ 24
Re ð1 1:3553b þ 1:9467b 1:7012b þ 0:9564b 0:2537b Þ
K∞ ¼ 0.6796 þ 1.2197b þ 3.3089b2 9.5921b3 þ 8.9089b4 2.9959b5
K90 ¼ bending pressure loss coefficient
DPtp ¼ DPf þ DPa þ DPtp,dyn
" !#
vfg
DPtp;dyn ¼ G2vf ð1 sc Þ2 1 þ xe
2
vf ; sc ¼ AAp

Qnet
xe ¼ h1 Cp ðTsat Tin Þ
fg m
Qnet ¼ Qinput Qloss
in heat transfer coefficient at high wall temperature. In third trend above discussion it can be concluded that vapour quality limit
on (200, 700, 4) and (200, 700, 4) heat sink, heat transfer coefficient which determines the dominance of either nucleate boiling or
decreased first and then moderately increased as the wall tem- convective boiling is dependent on individual fluid.
perature was increased. They further concluded that heat transfer Kosar et al. [33] monitored variation of the two phase heat
characteristics in laminar and transition region of microchannels transfer coefficient with heat flux and mass flux. They observed
are highly complicated compared to conventional channel. This that at low (G ¼ 41 kg/m2 s) and moderate (G ¼ 83 and 166 kg/m2 s)
was attributed to the considerable change in thermo-physical mass fluxes, two phase heat transfer coefficient dropped rapidly
properties of the flowing fluid because of large variation in liquid after critical heat flux condition due to complete dryout. However,
temperature along the length of microchannel. Qu and Mudawar at higher mass flux (G ¼ 302 kg/m2 s), two phase heat transfer
[82] carried out experimental and numerical study of single phase coefficient decreased continuously from nucleate boiling to critical
heat transfer using twenty one rectangular microchannels (W, H) heat flux condition. They also observed large fluctuations in two
(231, 713) heat sink. They compared the result of numerical study phase heat transfer coefficient at low mass flux with exit vapour
with experimental data and suggested that NaviereStokes and quality. They attributed it to the oscillatory flow pattern. Oscillatory
energy equation can successfully predict heat transfer behaviour of flow pattern continuously shifted between confined bubble moving
the single phase flow. Unlike previous studies, they did not observe back and forth along the channel. Eventually, they concluded that
the flow transition in the tested range of Reynolds number from nucleate boiling is dominant at low mass flux under all heat fluxes
139 to 1672. Qi et al. [39] carried out experiments of the single and moderate mass fluxes under low heat flux conditions. Whereas,
phase heat transfer analysis on microtube using liquid nitrogen as for moderate mass fluxes under high heat flux and for high mass
working fluid. They observed that contrary to water in case of ni- flux under all heat fluxes convective boiling is a dominant heat
trogen heat transfer coefficient and local heat transfer coefficient transfer mechanism. Schilder et al. [44] performed the experiments
both decreased in the flow direction with increase in heat flux, on circular glass tube (Dh ¼ 600) using ethanol as working fluid.
which they attributed to the inverse relationship between tem- They observed that for single phase liquid flow, the measured
perature and thermal conductivity of nitrogen. They concluded that Nusselt number approached the classical value for constant heat
thermal properties of working fluid play an important role on flow flux under Poiseuille flow (Nu ¼ 4.36) at about 80% of the heated
and heat transfer characteristics of microchannels. Herwig and tube length. Based on two phase experiments they concluded that
Mahulikar [91] had proved importance of change in thermal evaporation of thin liquid film covering the tube wall is dominating
properties of the working fluid on heat transfer characteristics heat transfer mechanism. They further concluded that presence of
through their numerical study. Sui et al. [92] carried out experi- wavy patterns on the film surface indicated the existence of shear
ments using deionized water on three wavy microchannels test force between the vapour and the liquid phase.
pieces (W, H) (205, 404) with different wavy magnitude (0, 138 and Steinke and Kandlikar [28] carried out flow boiling experiments
259 mm). They compared the heat transfer performance of the wavy on six rectangular microchannels with Dh ¼ 207 mm using sub-
microchannels with straight microchannels and concluded that cooled inlet conditions. They carried out experiments in heat flux
wavy microchannels had superior heat transfer performance than range of 5e950 kW/m2 and mass flux range of 157e1782 kg/m2 s.
straight microchannels. They accredited it in favour of secondary They found that local heat transfer coefficient value was very high
flow inside curves of wavy microchannels. at very low vapour quality (xe z 0), which they attributed forma-
It is widely accepted that the saturation flow boiling in micro- tion of first bubble (carting maximum energy) on that location.
channels is governed by nucleate boiling and forced convection Local flow boiling heat transfer coefficient decreased very sharply
boiling (Collier and Thome [93]). The nucleate boiling region is with increase in vapour quality irrespective of heat flux value, this
normally associated with the bubbly and slug flow pattern, and the was accredited in favour of rapid bubble growth. Yen et al. [94] and
forced convection boiling region is associated with the annular flow Sobierska et al. [37] also observed similar kind of trend in their
pattern. In the nucleate boiling region, the wall temperature is few studies as Steinke and Kandlikar [28]. Sobierska et al. [37] attrib-
degree higher than the saturation temperature of the working fluid, uted the above to the following possible reasons; (i) partial dryout
which is sufficient for the bubble nucleation and its growth. In this due to complete cross section filled by bubble, (ii) high pressure
region the heat transfer coefficient is primarily influenced by the gradient associated with microchannels. Qu and Mudawar [26] also
heat flux, whereas the effect of mass flux and vapour quality is less observed the same trend in their study and attributed it to appre-
significant. In forced convection region, heat is mainly transferred ciable droplet entrainment at the onset of annular flow regime.
through the single phase annular liquid film and is carried away by However, above reasons can not affect heat transfer characteristic
the evaporation at an interface of liquid and vapour. In this region in the vicinity of ONB, where vapour quality is very small. Retar-
heat transfer coefficient mainly depends on mass velocity, vapour dation in local liquid phase velocity after ONB may be responsible
quality and heat flux. Peng and Wang [25] observed that flow for it. Park et al. [51] observed the same trend using FC-72 but for
boiling was reached to the fully developed nucleate boiling for wall low heat flux (q < 8.6 kW/m2) region only, they attributed it to the
temperature slightly higher than saturation temperature and was insufficient heat flux for generating active boiling in microchannels.
not affected by liquid velocity and subcooling. At high heat flux values (q > 8.6 kW/m2), the local heat transfer
Two phase heat transfer coefficient along the length of the coefficient first increases up to certain vapour quality and then
microchannel was measured by Lee and Mudawar [61]. In their decreased. They also observed decreasing trend of local heat
experiment, the quality of vapour was maintained by changing the transfer coefficient with increase in mass flux at constant heat flux
mass flow rate of R134a. They suggested dividing the quality region value, which they attributed to the possible dryout of the liquid film
into smaller interval for better estimate of heat transfer coefficient. surrounding the elongated bubble and annular flow.
They proposed three regions, xe < 0.05 for nucleate boiling gener- Bubble at nucleation site in microchannel is another aspect of
ated at low heat flux, 0.05 < xe < 0.55 for annular film evaporation important aspect of study considering various instabilities associ-
generated at high heat flux and high mass flux and xe > 0.55 for ated with it. Bubble at nucleation site in microchannel either grows
annular film evaporation generated at high heat flux and low mass linearly or exponentially (i.e. rapid bubble growth). Numerical
flux. Whereas, Yen et al. [94] claimed through their experiments study of the vapour bubble growth at nucleation site has been
that nucleate boiling region remained dominate up to xe < 0.4 in carried out by Zhuan and Wang [95]. However, detailed numerical
case of HCFC123 followed by convective boiling region. From the bubble growth study is cumbersome and time consuming.
Furthermore, Rayleigh equation (used for determining the bubble inclinations e90 (vertical downward), e45 , 0 , 45 and 90
growth in homogeneous superheated bulk medium [96e98]) pre- (vertical upward). They observed that heat transfer coefficient
dicts larger bubble growth rate than experimental value for het- increased by 30% at an inclination of 45 relative to horizontal
erogeneous bubble growth in microchannels [23,52]. Recently, orientation. They attributed the above to the two possible reasons
Kadam et al. [99] developed simplified energy based model for (i) rise of distance between the bubble nose and contact surface
prediction of the bubble growth at nucleation site in microchannel. brought the increase of velocity adjacent to the contact surface, (ii)
Yun et al. [36] carried out experiments to study the effects of concurrent nature of the inertia and buoyancy force. The heat
mass flux, heat flux and saturation pressure on heat transfer transfer coefficient associated with vertical up (q ¼ 90 ) and hori-
characteristics. They observed that effect of mass flux, heat flux and zontal (q ¼ 0 ) arrangements had almost same values due to the
saturation pressure on heat transfer coefficient was more signifi- symmetric nature of the elongated bubble in both arrangements.
cant after dryout vapour quality. After dryout vapour quality region, For the vertical downward inclination heat transfer coefficient
heat transfer coefficient increased with increase in mass flux, heat showed 50% lower value as compared to the inclination of 45 due
flux and saturation pressure respectively. to opposite direction of inertia and buoyancy forces.
The variation of heat transfer coefficient of HFE 7100 with wall Lu and Pan [50] observed significant enhancement in heat
temperature and heat flux for different rectangular microchannels transfer coefficient in microchannels with artificial nucleation sites,
(W, H), (123.4, 304.9), (123.4, 526.9), (235.2, 576.8) and (259.9, which facilitated bubble nucleation. Yen et al. [94] observed high
1041.3) was studied by Lee and Mudawar [85]. They concluded that heat transfer coefficient in case of square microchannel as
smaller microchannel dimensions helped in improving the heat compared to circular microchannel upto vapour quality of 0.4. This
transfer characteristics by increasing mass velocity and wetted was attributed to square corners that acted as host for active
area. However, smaller width microchannels are more likely to face nucleation sites. They reported similar heat transfer at high vapour
premature stability problems due to early transition from bubbly to quality for both cases. However, the trend may be opposite at
slug flow. Balasubramanian et al. [46] compared the heat transfer annular flow regime, surface tension force intends to attenuate
coefficient in straight and expanding microchannel. They reported liquid film (on the wall) more effectively in case of square cross
that heat transfer coefficient increased more rapidly with heat flux section. Resulting local dryout in case of square channel will reduce
supplied in case of expanding microchannel as compared to its heat transfer performance in comparison to circular channel.
straight microchannel. They attributed to it to the improved sta- Few correlations to predict heat transfer coefficient in single
bility provided by expanding microchannel. phase and two phase flow are reported in open literature. Tables 6
Study of Choo and Kim [100] was concentrated for finding the and 7 present details of these correlations for single phase and two
heat transfer characteristics of nonboiling two phase flow in phase respectively. These correlations for single phase and two
microchannel. They observed the effect of microchannel hydraulic phase heat transfer are plotted in Figs. 9 and 10, respectively against
diameter on the heat transfer coefficient as shown in Fig. 8. When of experimental data of Koyuncuoglu et al. [104] for single phase
the channel diameter was smaller than about 235e260 mm, the two and Qu and Mudawar [26] for two phase. Form Figs. 9 and 10, it can
phase heat transfer was even lower than the single-phase case. be concluded that existing heat transfer correlations are inconsis-
They concluded that this may be due to the dominant effect of tent and show large deviation in comparison to experimental data.
surface tension and liquid viscosity that prohibited the turbulent This may be due to limited range of experimentation, difference in
mixing in liquid film covering the wall. Furthermore, the transition operating conditions, and difference in type of channel geometries
channel diameter did not change once the gas Reynolds was used in these studies.
increased beyond Re ¼ 300. Experiments were performed with Therefore, still lot of efforts are needed so that generalized
mixture of water and air on circular tubes of 140 mme506 mm equations can be found for finding out heat transfer coefficient
diameter under different flow rates of air and water. associated with single phase and two phase flow in microchannels.
Wang et al. [101] experimentally analysed the effect of channel
inclination (rectangular microchannel Dh ¼ 825) by carried out 5. Instability
experiments at different heat flux (25, 37.5) and mass flux values
(100, 200, 300). Experiments were performed at five different Instability is also called as malfunctioning of the flow in
microchannels. Instability in microchannel may cause several
problems such as vibration, problems of system control, thermal
fatigue and in extreme circumstances it may even be responsible
for surface burnout. The well known instabilities associated with
microchannels are flow reversal, pressure fluctuation, wall tem-
perature fluctuation, flow maldistribution and Ledinegg instability.
Out of above mention instabilities Ledinegg instability is static
instability, whereas pressure fluctuation, wall temperature fluctu-
ation and flow reversal are dynamic instabilities. A thorough un-
derstanding and determination of these associated instabilities are
important.
Qi et al. [106] carried out experiments in order to study the two
phase flow instabilities using liquid nitrogen as working fluid on
two microtubes of diameter 1.042 and 1.931 mm. They observed
repetitive regular oscillation of mass flux, pressure drop and wall
temperature at ONB in both microtubes. These oscillations were
referred as stable oscillation, as it remained stable, if system pres-
sure, heat flux and outlet condition of the system did not change
significantly. They explained that after ONB, many small bubbles
Fig. 8. The variation of the Nusselt number with channel hydraulic diameter for nucleate, grow, detach from nucleation cavities and finally move
different Reynolds number (Choo and Kim [100]). along the flow in microtube. These small vapour bubbles entered
Table 6
Single phase heat transfer correlations.
Author and year Channels geometry and Operating parameter Correlation

fluid (W, H, D) mm
Wang and Peng [90] Rectangular, Pin ¼ 1 bar, Tin,w ¼ 10e35 C, Nu ¼ [0.00805Re4/5Pr1/3]
W ¼ 200e800, H ¼ 700 Tin,m ¼ 14e19 C, Re ¼ 1000e1500.
Water and methanol
Vidmar and Circular, D ¼ 131 Ps ¼ 500e4500 psi, Tin ¼ 23.4e31.4 C, Nu ¼ 4.36, for Re < 2300
" #
Barker [102] Water Tout ¼ 74e163.1 C, ðf =8ÞðRe 1000ÞPr
m ¼ 1.510 103e 4.43 103 kg/s Nu ¼ 1=2
; for 2300 < Re < 20,000
1 þ 12:7ðPr 2=3 1Þðf =8Þ
" #
ðf =8ÞRePr
Nu ¼ ; for 104 < Re < 107
k1 þ k2 ðPr2=3 1Þðf =8Þ1=2
k1 ¼ 1 þ 13:6ðfD =4Þ; k2 ¼ 11:7 þ 1:8=Pr 0:33
rVDh mCp
Re ¼ ; Pr ¼
m k
8
< 0:079Re0:25 4000 < Re < 20000
f ¼ 0:049Re0:25 20000 < Re < 106
:
½1:581 lnðReÞ 3:282 10000 < Re < 107
!
1 e 9:35
0:5
¼ 1:14 2log10 þ 0:5
fD D h Ref
D
Nacke et al. [103] Rectangular, Tin ¼ 24.4 C, m ¼ 0.001e0.0053 kg/s. D
0:0668 h RePr
W ¼ 254, H ¼ 762 L
Nu ¼ 3:66 þ 2=3 ; for Re <2300 and Pr 5
Water Dh
1 þ 0:04 RePr
L
!0:14
RePr 1=3 ml
Nu ¼ 1:86 ; for Re <2300 and Pr <5
L=Dh ml;s
Koyuncuoglu Rectangular, Tin ¼ 24.4e25.1 C, Tout ¼ 70.7e96.8 C, Nu ¼ (W/H)0.053(Re)0.782(Pr)0.041
et al. [104] W ¼ 200, H ¼ 50 m ¼ 2.91 106e 6.67 106 kg/s
Water
Table 7
Two phase heat transfer coefficient correlations.
Author and year Channel geometry and Operating condition Correlation

fluid (W, H, D) mm
Lee and Mudawar [61] Rectangular, Pin ¼ 1.44e6.6 bar, For xe ¼ 0e0.05,
W ¼ 231, H ¼ 713 q ¼ 159e938 kW/m2, ðdp=dzÞf K
htp ¼ 3:856X 0:267 hsp;l ; where X 2 ¼ ; hsp;l ¼ Nu3 f
R134a G ¼ 127e654 kg/m2 s, ðdp=dzÞg Dh
xin ¼ 0.001e0.25, !0:5 !0:5
1 xe 0:5 mf vf 0:5 ff Re0:25
g 1 xe 0:5 vf 0:5
xout ¼ 0.49esuperheat Xvv ¼ Xvt ¼
xe mg vg mg xe vg
Nu3 ¼ 8.235(1 1.883b þ 3.767b2 5.814b3 þ 5.361b4 2b5)
For xe ¼ 0.05e0.5
htp ¼ 436:48Bo0:522 We0:352 X 0:665 hsp;l ; where hsp;l ¼ Nu3 ðKf =Dh Þ
For xe ¼ 0.55e1
htp ¼ max{108.6X1.667hsp,g, hsp,g}
Kg
hsp;g ¼ Nu3 for laminar flow
dh
hsp;g ¼ 0:023Re0:8 0:4
g Prg for turbulent flow
Kosar et al. [33] Rectangular, q ¼ 280e4450 kW/m2, 00
htp ¼ 1:068ðq Þ0:64 Nucleate boiling,
W ¼ 200, H ¼ 264, G ¼ 41e302 kg/m2 s
1 xe 0:02
L ¼ 10 mm htp ¼ 4:068 104 ðRel Þ0:12 ð1 xe Þ0:8 Convective boiling
xe
Water
Bertsch et al. [105] Dh ¼ 160e2920 Tsat ¼ e194e90 C, h ¼ hnb ð1 xe Þ þ hcb ð1 þ 80ðx2e x6e Þe0:6Co Þ
q ¼ 4e1150 kW/m2, ð0:120:2ðlog R ÞÞ
ðlog10 Pr Þ0:55 M 0:5 q 0:67
00
hnb ¼ 55Pr 10 p
G ¼ 20e3000 kg/m2 s
hcb ¼ hconv; l ð1 xe Þ þ hconv; v xe ;
!
0:0668Dh =LRel Prl kl
hconv; L ¼ 3:66 þ
1 þ 0:04½Dh =LRel Prl 2=3 Dh
!
0:0668Dh =LRev Prv kv
hconv; v ¼ 3:66 þ ;
1 þ 0:04½Dh =LRev Prv 2=3 Dh
Pr ¼ Inlet pressure/critical pressure ¼ reduced pressure,
" #0:5
s GDh GDh Cp; l ml Cp; v mv
Co ¼ ; Rel ¼ ; Rev ¼ ; Prl ¼ ; Prv ¼
gðrl rv ÞD2h ml mv kl kv
Circular, Dh ¼ 140e506, q ¼ 340e950 kW/m2, Nutp ¼ 0:023Rem n ; m ¼ 0:8 0:8½1 þ eðd *
37Þ=7 1 ;
L PrL F; F ¼ CX
Choo and Kim [100] 0:4
water and air Vg ¼ 1.24e40.1 m/s, *

C ¼ 2:94 þ 358e0:1d ; n ¼ 0:7 0:8½1 þ eðd
*
41Þ=2 1 ;
Vl ¼ 0.57e2.13 m/s pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
d* ¼ d= s=rg
40000 periodic amplitude flow oscillation, which arose due to interaction

between generated vapour and compressible volume coming from
35000 upstream direction. Whereas, parallel channels instability pro-
Koyuncuoglu et al. (exp.) duced very mild flow oscillations resulting from density wave
30000 Koyuncuoglu et al. oscillation within each channels. They further reported that severe
Nacke et al. pressure drop can even lead to premature critical heat flux condi-
25000 Wang and Peng
hsp (W/m K)
tion. Chang and Pan [107] concluded that large magnitude of the
Vidmar and Barker
2
pressure drop oscillation may result into growing and shrinking of

20000
the bubble slug alternatively with flow reversal. Bogojevic et al.
15000
[108] carried out series of experiments on 40 parallel micro-
channels (Dh ¼ 194) using water as working fluid. They observed
10000 that low inlet water temperature was subjected to higher magni-
tude of temperature oscillation. Whereas, high inlet water tem-
5000 perature promoted better flow distribution, which resulted into
lower magnitude of temperature oscillation. Megahed [47]
0 observed that microchannels were subjected to low magnitude of
50 60 70 80 90 100 pressure and temperature fluctuation at high mass flux. Therefore,
Re he concluded that flow becomes more stable at high mass flux.
Balasubramanian et al. [46] observed that pressure fluctuation and
Fig. 9. Single phase heat transfer coefficient variation with Reynolds number.
wall temperature fluctuation were less severe in expanding
microchannel than the straight microchannel under same oper-
and accumulated gradually into the outlet mixing chamber having ating conditions.
diameter much larger than microtube that ultimately reduces Flow reversal is another potential instability reported by several
bubble velocity. Hence, inertia force turned weaker and gravita- authors in which vapour slug flows back into inlet plenum. Qu and
tional force magnitude increased significantly. Due to low vapour Mudawar [27] and Bergles and Kandlikar [109] observed that flow
density these bubbles accumulated in upper part of outlet mixing reversal occurs generally when CHF condition was approached. In
chamber and formed vapour patch. This vapour patch temporarily the vicinity of CHF, rapid evaporation of the liquid caused bubble to
blocked the mouth of outlet port. Thus, mass flux gradually expand in both upstream and downstream directions and form
decreased, which eventually resulted into increase in wall tem- vapour slug. Kandlikar [110] concluded that location of the ONB
perature and two phase vapour quality due to continual supply of decides the flow reversal. When nucleation occurred towards
heat flux. Higher exit vapour quality increased associated pressure microchannel outlet (Fig. 11(a)), no flow reversal was observed. This
drop. After discharge of the vapour patch, microchannel was again was due to the fact that vapour pressure of liquid could not over-
filled with fresh liquid nitrogen and the process repeated itself. Huh come inertia of incoming fluid. On the other hand, when nucleation
et al. [38] observed similar kind of oscillations in their study. They was initiated near microchannel inlet, vapour bubble could easily
further concluded that pressure drop fluctuation and mass flux overcome lower inertia of the incoming fluid. Thus, flow reversal
fluctuation remained in phase. Whereas, mass flux fluctuation and was observed as shown in Fig. 11(b). Recently, Tuo and Hrnjak [111]
wall temperature fluctuation were exactly out of phase. They also studied the effect of the flow reversal on the performance of
observed that fluctuation period and fluctuation amplitude microchannel based evaporator of vapour compression system and
decreased with increase in mass flux and decrease in heat flux. Qu concluded that it causes refrigerant flow maldistribution. They also
and Mudawar [86] carried out experiments on multiple parallel concluded that local heat transfer coefficient may reduce because
microchannels. They reported two types of instabilities, pressure the vapour re-entrainment is likely to form a “dryout” bubble slug
drop oscillation and parallel channel instability associated with (without being surrounded by a thin liquid film). Kandlikar [110]
microchannels. Pressure drop oscillation produced fairly large mentioned that flow reversal could be avoided either by reducing
the local liquid superheating at the ONB or by introducing pressure
drop element at the entrance of each channel. Kaun and Kandlikar
[112] performed experiments with inlet restrictors and observed
90000
that the flow become stable and flow reversal problem was reduced
due to application of restrictors. Wang et al. [40] had also confirmed
80000
that the inlet restrictor helps in reducing flow reversal instability.
70000 Qu and Mudawar (Exp.) Kuo and Peles [113] observed that the presence of reentrant cavities
Bertsch et al. helped in reducing the pressure drop oscillation, parallel channel
Choo and Kim
htp (W/m K)
60000
Lee and Mudawar
2
Kosar et al.
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Re
Fig. 11. Effect of nucleation location ((a) towards outlet, (b) towards) inlet on flow
Fig. 10. Two phase heat transfer coefficient variation with Reynolds number. reversal (Kandlikar [110]).
instability and flow reversal instability by acting as host for active

nucleation sites at much lower heat flux.
Xu et al. [114] and Liu et al. [115] experimentally demonstrated
seed bubble generation method to mitigate flow instabilities (flow
reversal, pressure drop oscillation and temperatures oscillation)
associated with microchannels, which arises mainly due to strong
thermal non equilibrium of liquid and vapour phase. Originally this
idea was proposed by Thome and Dupont [116]. Seed bubbles are
micron size bubble, generated on the set of microheaters, which
were installed near to inlet port at the top wall of microchannels.
These microheaters were driven by pulse voltage signal. When the
voltage signal was on during pulse cycle, heating of microheaters
generates seed bubble, Marangoni effect help in sticking of these
seed bubbles at microheaters. As the signal turned off in the same
pulse cycle, Marangoni effect become weak and shear force from
the flowing liquid took away seed bubbles from microheaters sur-
face. These seed bubble grow further soaking up energy from su-
perheated liquid. At low frequency, these seed bubbles not only
decreased oscillation amplitudes of pressure drop and temperature
but also reduced oscillation cycle periods. At high frequency, these
seed bubbles completely suppressed the flow instabilities. How- Fig. 12. Ledinegg instability (Kakac and Bon [97]).
ever, this method had not facilitated the subcooled liquid flow and
vapour flow at high vapour mass quantities. Han and Shikazono
[117] demonstrated air injection as a stabilization method for flow channels which resulted into flow mal-distribution. Numerical re-
boiling in microtube using water as working fluid. They observed sults also showed that smaller width or depth or larger channel
that pressure fluctuation and wall temperature fluctuation reduced length turn flow distribution more uniform. Furthermore, flow
significantly with increase in air injection flow rate. mal-distribution problem aggravated at high flow rate or by the use
Recently, Tuo and Hrnjak [118] proposed new vapour venting of less viscous fluid. Tuo and Hrnjak [124] in their experimental
method to mitigate problem associated with flow reversal in study on microchannel evaporator (34 tubes) identified two types
microchannel evaporator. Proposed method provides 5% increase in of fluid mal-distribution: quality induced mal-distribution and
cooling capacity and 3% increase in COP of air conditioning system. header pressure drop induced mal-distribution. They used flash gas
In case of two phase flow in parallel microchannel heat sink, bypass method to mitigate problem of the quality induced mal-
equal mass flow distribution to each microchannel is very impor- distribution. They also observed that increase in outer header
tant. In absence of properly design inlet/outlet header, micro- diameter resulted into uniform flow rate in each microctube.
channel heat sink is bound to face large amplitude fluctuation of Szczukiewicz et al. [125] concluded through their visual observa-
pressure and temperature due to backward flow which eventually tion on sixty seven rectangular microchannels (100, 100) evapo-
decrease the cooling capacity of heat sink and has to be obliged by rator that introduction of the inlet orifice successfully suppressed
running the system at moderate load. The headers which connect flow instability, vapour back flow and significantly improved flow
all microchannels in case multiple microchannel heat sink uniformity across microchannel.
unavoidably introduce additional pressure drop due to contraction/ Study of Ledinegg instability is helpful to avoid malfunctioning
expansion, friction and pressure loss/gain due to deceleration/ac- of the pump used in microchannels heat sink loop. As per Kakac
celeration [119]. This causes uneven pressure difference across each and Bon [126], Ledinegg instability is due to sudden variation in
tube, resulting in unequal mass flow through each microchannel. flow rate to a lower value. It is explained through pressure drop
Researchers have also suggested modification in of inlet/outlet verses mass flow rate characteristics reported by Kakac and Bon
header for removing flow maldistribution problem. Tonomura et al. [126] in Fig. 12. It occurred when slope of the channels demand
[120] carried out CFD simulation to find optimum design of curve (internal characteristics curve) is negative and steeper than
manifold for parallel microchannel heat sink. They observed that the loop supply curve (external characteristics curve, A) and under
large outlet manifold provide uniform flow distribution. However, multiple interaction of this both curves (P, P0, P00 ). A slight variation
enlargement of outlet manifold increased dead volume inside in flow rate to the lower side result in more pressure drop is
microchannels. They also generated optimal shape header auto- required to sustain the flow available from external curve. Zhang
matically (somewhat like trapezoidal header) by integration of et al. [127] studied Ledinegg instability in microchannels and pro-
optimization method with CFD simulation. Cho et al. [121] per- posed ways to avoid this instability as having less number of
formed experiments on 33 straight and 33 diverging microchannels channels, increased system pressure, lower heat flux, low sub-
having rectangular as well as trapezoidal header. They observed cooling and short channels.
that diverging microchannels with trapezoidal header gave more
uniform flow distribution as compared to other configurations such 6. Concluding remark
as straight microchannel-rectangular header, straight
microchannel-trapezoidal header and diverging microchannel- Following are conclusive remarks and suggestions of current
rectangular header. Cho et al. [122] carried out numerical simula- work:
tion to obtained optimal header geometry which somewhat like
trapezoidal in shape for two phase flow in the microchannel heat i. Flow visualization study is very important as it gives an
sink. Kumaraguruparan et al. [123] carried out numerical study on insight of the heat transfer and the pressure drop charac-
microchannel heat sink to investigate the causes of flow mal- teristics. Lot of flow visualization studies have been carried
distribution. They observed that flow field in inlet header was out on microchannels. However, unlike conventional chan-
non uniform due to occurrence of circulation zone at inlet of some nels, flow regimes are not well accepted yet for
microchannels. Phenomena like bubble suppression, bubble G mass flux (kg/m2 s)

circulation, bubble nucleation inside thin liquid film, bubble H microchannel width (mm)
condensation, and their effect on flow regimes are not well h heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
studied yet. Hence, unusual states such as absence of bubbly hfg latent heat (kJ/kg)
flow, swirling pattern in churn flow and liquid bridges in K thermal conductivity (W/m K), coefficient
slugeannular flow have been reported in different research Kc contraction coefficient
works. K∞ Hegenbach factor
ii. Majority of the microchannel research work in the last two L channel length (m)
decades had been oriented for better understanding of M molecular mass of the fluid (kg/kmol)
mechanism involved in heat transfer. Current heat transfer m mass flow rate (kg/s)
correlations comparative study shows that still lot of efforts N number of microchannel
are needed for setting up generalized heat transfer correla- Nu Nusselt number
tions for microchannels. Limited range of experimentation, DP pressure drop (Pa)
difference in operating conditions, and channel geometries Pr Prandtl number
could be possibly responsible for that. Future research will Pr reduced pressure (inlet pressure/saturation pressure)
certainly focus more on finding suitable heat transfer Re Reynolds number
augmentation techniques by choosing among from conven- Rp surface roughness parameter (mm)
tionally proven methods e.g. extended surfaces, artificial T temperature ( C)
nucleation sites, surfactants, artificial surface roughness, Qnet net heat supplied (w).
nanofluid etc. q00 effective heat supplied (W/m2)
iii. Various instabilities associated with two phase flow are the u mean velocity in port (m/s)
main constraints limiting the application of microchannels. uch mean velocity in microchannel (m/s)
Few suggestions have been made in order to avoid in- V velocity (m/s)
stabilities such as flow reversal (reducing liquid superheating v specific volume (m3/kg)
at ONB, throttling at inlet of microchannels and re-entrant vfg difference in specific volume of saturated liquid and
cavities), Pressure and temperature oscillations (operating vapour
at high mass fluxes, and expanding microchannels) and W channel width (mm)
Ledinegg instability (increased system pressure, lower heat We Weber number
flux, low subcooling and short channels). More studies are X Martinelli parameter
needed in this direction such as novel design can be devised xe thermodynamic equilibrium quality
free from major instabilities. xL equilibrium quality at end of the heated length
iv. Majority of the studies have been carried out on rectangular
microchannels or microtubes. Very few studies have been Greek
carried out on other cross sections like trapezoidal, V-shape, ain inlet void fraction
hexagonal etc. It would be interesting to know, what is the aout outlet void fraction
effect of channel geometry on heat transfer characteristics b aspect ratio
and especially on instabilities. Moreover, refrigerant like q static contact angle ( )
R600a and R290 (with low ozone layer depletion potential) m dynamic viscosity (Pa-s)
have not been explored as working fluid in microchannels. sc contraction area ratio
v. The bubble dynamics (i.e. such as vapour bubble nucleation, se expansion area ratio
growth, departure from nucleation site and its motion along
the flow) governs the two phase heat transfer, pressure drop Subscript
characteristics and possibly associated instabilities also. Use 1 deep plenum.
of conventional channel theory is ambiguous for this task. 2 shallow plenum
Detailed numerical study of the each stage will be helpful in 3 three sided wall heating
accurately predicting heat transfer and pressure drop char- a acceleration
acteristics under wide range of operating conditions. c contraction
cb convective boiling
Nomenclature conv convective
dev developing region
A channel cross section (m2) dyn dynamic
Ap plenum cross section area (m2) e expansion
Cc contraction coefficient f friction, fluid
Co confinement number fdev fully developed region
Cp specific heat (J/kg K) g gas
Cvv two phase parameter based on laminar liquidelaminar i inlet
vapour flow l liquid
Cvt two phase parameter based on laminar liquideturbulent nb nucleate boiling
vapour flow nh non heating
Dh hydraulic diameter (m) out outlet
e surface roughness (m) s solid surface
f fanning friction factor sat saturated
fapp apparent friction factor for developing single-phase liquid sub subcooled
flow sp single phase
fD Darcy friction factor T total
tp two phase [30] P.C. Lee, F.G. Tseng, C. Pan, Bubble dynamics in microchannels. Part I: single
microchannel, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 47 (2004) 5575e5589.
vt laminar liquideturbulent vapour flow
[31] H.Y. Li, F.G. Tseng, C. Pan, Bubble dynamics in microchannels. Part II: two
vv laminar liquidelaminar vapour flow parallel microchannels, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 47 (2004) 5591e5601.
[32] J. Lee, I. Mudawar, Two-phase flow in high-heat-flux micro-channel heat
sink for refrigeration cooling applications: part Ieepressure drop charac-
References teristics, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 48 (2005) 928e940.
[33] A. Kosar, C.J. Kuo, Y. Peles, Boiling heat transfer in rectangular microchannels
[1] I. Mudawar, Two-phase microchannel heat sink: theory, application and with reentrant cavities, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 48 (2005) 4867e4886.
limitation, J. Electron. Packag. 133 (2002), http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/ [34] Z.Y. Ling, J.N. Ding, J.C. Yang, Y. Liu, Z. Fan, P. Yang, Z.W. Zhuang, Experi-
1.4005300. mental study of flow characteristics of distilled water under pressure driven
[2] R. Ali, Phase Change Phenomena during Fluid Flow in Micro Channels in microchannel, in: Proc. 1st IEEE Int. Conference on Nano/Micro Engi-
(Doctoral Thesis), Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, 2010. neered and Molecular Systems, Zhuhai, China, 2006, pp. 182e186.
[3] E. Pop, K.E. Goodson, Thermal phenomena in nanoscale transistors, [35] T. Chen, S.V. Garimella, Measurements and high-speed visualizations of flow
J. Electron. Packag. 128 (2006) 102e108. boiling of a dielectric fluid in a silicon microchannel heat sink, Int. J. Multi-
[4] R.J. Phillips, Microchannel heat sinks, Linc. Lab. J. 1 (1988) 31e47. phase Flow 32 (2006) 957e971.
[5] J. Lee, I. Mudawar, Fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of low tem- [36] R. Yun, J.Y. Heo, Y. Kim, Evaporative heat transfer and pressure drop of
perature two-phase micro-channel heat sink e part1: experimental methods R410A in microchannels, Int. J. Refrig. 29 (2006) 92e100.
and flow visualization results, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 51 (2008) 4315e4326. [37] E. Sobierska, R. Kulenovic, R. Mertz, M. Groll, experimental results of flow
[6] R.D. Boyd, Subcooled flow boiling critical heat flux and its application to boiling of water in a vertical microchannel, Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci. 31 (2006)
fusion energy components. Part 1. A review of fundamentals of CHF and 111e119.
related data base, Fusion Technol. 7 (1985) 7e30. [38] C. Huh, J. Kim, M.H. Kim, Flow pattern transition instability during flow
[7] J. Lee, I. Mudawar, Low-temperature two-phase microchannel cooling for boiling in a single microchannel, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 50 (2007)
high heat-flux thermal management of defence electronics, IEEE Trans. 1049e1060.
Compon. Packag. Technol. 32 (2009) 453e465. [39] S.L. Qi, P. Zhang, R.Z. Wang, L.X. Xu, Single-phase pressure drop and heat
[8] S.G. Kandlikar, High flux heat removal with microchannels- A roadmap of transfer characteristics of turbulent liquid nitrogen flow in micro-tubes, Int.
challenges and opportunities, Heat Transf. Eng. 26 (2005) 5e14. J. Heat Mass Transf. 50 (2007) 1993e2001.
[9] D.B. Tuckerman, R.F.W. Pease, High-performance heat sinking for VLSI, IEEE [40] G. Wang, P. Cheng, A.E. Bergles, Effects of inlet/outlet configurations on flow
Electron Device Lett. 2 (1981) 126e129. boiling instability in parallel microchannels, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 51
[10] R.W. Keyes, Heat transfer in forced convection through fins, IEEE Trans. (2008) 2267e2281.
Electron Devices 311 (1984) 1218e1221. [41] B. Agostini, R. Revellin, J.R. Thome, Elongated bubbles in microchannels. Part
[11] I.J. Missaggia, J.N. Walpole, Z.L. Liau, R.J. Phillips, Microchannel heat sinks for I: experimental study and modeling of elongated bubble velocity, Int. J.
two-dimensional high-power-density diode laser arrays, IEEE J. Quantum Multiphase Flow 34 (2008) 590e601.
Electron. 25 (1989) 1988e1992. [42] S.G. Singh, A. Kulkarni, S.P. Duttagupta, B.P. Puranik, A. Agrawal, Impact of
[12] S.G. Kandlikar, W.J. Grande, Evolution of microchannel flow passagesee- aspect ratio on flow boiling of water in rectangular microchannels, Exp.
thermohydraulic performance and fabrication technology, in: ASME Inter- Therm. Fluid Sci. 33 (2008) 153e160.
national Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition, November 17e22, [43] O.B. Ergu, O.N. Sara, S. Yapici, M.E. Arzutug, Pressure drop and point mass
New Orleans, Louisiana, 2002. transfer in a rectangular microchannel, Int. Commun. Heat Mass Transf. 36
[13] S.G. Kandlikar, W.J. Grande, Evolution of microchannel flow passage ther- (2009) 618e623.
mohydraulic performance and fabrication technology, Heat Transf. Eng. 24 [44] B. Schilder, S.Y.C. Man, N. Kasagi, S. Hardt, P. Stephan, Flow visualization and
(2003) 3e17. local measurement of forced convection heat transfer in a microtube, J. Heat
[14] S.S. Mehendale, A.M. Jacobi, R.K. Shah, Fluid flow and heat transfer at micro- Transf. 132 (2010), http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.4000046.
and meso-scales with applications to heat exchanger design, Appl. Mech. [45] S. Krishnamurthy, Y. Peles, Flow boiling heat transfer on micro pin fins
Rev. 53 (2000) 175e193. entrenched in a microchannel, J. Heat Transf. 132 (2010), http://dx.doi.org/
[15] K. Cornwell, P.A. Kew, Boiling in Small Parallel Channels, Energy Efficiency in 10.1115/1.4000878.
Process Technology Elsevier, 1993, pp. 624e638 (Chap. 7). [46] K. Balasubramanian, P.S. Lee, L.W. Jin, S.K. Chou, C.J. Teo, S. Gao, Experimental
[16] P. Kew, K. Cornwell, Correlation for prediction of boiling heat transfer in investigations of flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop in straight and
small diameter channel, J. Therm. Eng. 17 (1997) 705e715. expanding microchannels e a comparative study, Int. J. Therm. Sci. 50 (2011)
[17] I. Papautsky, J. Brazzle, H. Swerdlow, A.B. Frazier, A low-temperature IC 241e2421.
compatible process for fabricating surface-micromachined metallic micro- [47] A. Megahed, Experimental investigation flow boiling characteristics in a
channels, J. Microelectromech. Syst. 7 (1998) 267e273. cross-linked microchannel heat sink, Int. J. Multiphase Flow 37 (2011)
[18] P.S. Lee, S.V. Garimella, D. Liu, Investigation of heat transfer in rectangular 380e393.
microchannels, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 48 (2005) 1688e1704. [48] S. Barlak, S. Yapici, O.N. Sara, Experimental investigation of pressure drop
[19] H.Y. Wu, P. Cheng, Condensation flow pattern in silicon microchannels, Int. J. and friction factor for water flow in microtubes, Int. J. Therm. Sci. 50 (2011)
Heat Mass Transf. 48 (2005) 2186e2197. 361e368.
[20] F. Mei, P.R. Parida, J. Jiang, W.J. Meng, S.V. Ekkad, Fabrication, assembly, and [49] Z.J. Edel, A. Mukherjee, Experimental investigation of vapor bubble growth
testing of Cu- and Al- based microchannel heat exchanger, during flow boiling in a microchannel, Int. J. Multiphase Flow 37 (2011)
J. Microelectromech. Syst. 17 (2008) 869e881. 1257e1265.
[21] J. Wu, M. Shi, Y. Chen, X. Li, Visualization study of steam condensation in [50] C.T. Lu, C. Pan, Convective boiling in a parallel microchannel heat sink with a
wide rectangular silicon microchannels, Int. J. Therm. Sci. 49 (2010) diverging cross section and artificial nucleation sites, Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci.
922e930. 35 (2011) 810e815.
[22] T. Chen, S.V. Garimella, Local heat transfer distribution and effect of in- [51] C.Y. Park, Y. Jang, B. Kim, Y. Kim, Flow boiling heat transfer coefficients and
stabilities during flow boiling in a silicon microchannel heat sink, Int. J. Heat pressure drop of FC-72 in microchannels, Int. J. Multiphase Flow 39 (2012)
Mass Transf. 54 (2011) 3179e3190. 45e54.
[23] J.Y. Lee, M.H. Kim, M. Kaviany, S.Y. Son, Bubble nucleation in microchannel [52] J.R. Thome, Engineering Data Book III, Wolverine Tube Inc., 2004 (Chap. 12).
flow boiling using single artificial cavity, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 54 (2011) [53] J. Pfahler, J. Harley, H. Bau, J. Zemel, Liquid transport in micron and submi-
5139e5148. cron channels, Sens. Actuators 22 (1990) 43le434.
[24] D.J. Hwang, T.Y. Choi, C.P. Grigoropoulos, Liquid assisted femtosecond laser [54] A. Megahed, I. Hassan, Two-phase pressure drop and flow visualization of
drilling of straight and three-dimensional micro-channels in glass, Appl. FC-72 in a silicon microchannel heat sink, Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 30 (2009)
Phys. A 79 (2004) 605e612. 1171e1182.
[25] X.F. Peng, B.X. Wang, Forced convection and flow boiling heat transfer for [55] P. Zhang, X. Fu, Two-phase flow characteristics of liquid nitrogen in vertically
liquid flowing through microchannels, Int. J. Heat Transf. 36 (1993) upward 0.5 and 1.0 mm micro-tubes: visualization studies, Cryogenics 49
3421e3427. (2009) 565e575.
[26] W. Qu, I. Mudawar, Flow boiling heat transfer in two-phase micro-channel [56] A. Kawahara, M. Sadatomi, K. Nei, H. Matsuo, Experimental study on bubble
heat sinkseeI. Experimental investigation and assessment of correlation velocity, void fraction and pressure drop for gaseliquid two-phase flow in a
methods, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 46 (2003) 2755e2771. circular microchannel, Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 30 (2009) 831e841.
[27] W. Qu, I. Mudawar, Measurement and correlation of critical heat flux in two- [57] C. Choi, M. Kim, Flow pattern based correlations of two-phase pressure drop
phase micro-channel heat sinks, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 47 (2004) in rectangular microchannels, Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 32 (2011) 1199e1207.
2045e2059. [58] C.W. Choi, D.I. Yu, M.H. Kim, Adiabatic two-phase flow in rectangular
[28] M.E. Steinke, S.G. Kandlikar, An experimental investigation of flow boiling microchannels with different aspect ratios: part I e flow pattern, pressure
characteristics of water in parallel microchannels, J. Heat Transf. 126 (2004) drop and void fraction, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 54 (2011) 616e624.
518e526. [59] K.E. Kasza, T. Didascalou, M.W. Wambsganss, Microscale flow visualization of
[29] J.W. Coleman, P.E. Krause, two phase pressure losses of R134a in micro- nucleate boiling in small channels: mechanisms influencing heat transfer, in:
channel tube headers with large free flow area ratios, Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci. Proc. International Conference on Compact Heat Exchanges for the Process
28 (2004) 123e130. Industries, Begell House Inc., New York, 1997, pp. 343e352.
[60] P.M.Y. Chung, M. Kawaji, The effect of channel diameter on adiabatic two- [89] M.B. Bowers, I. Mudawar, High flux boiling in low flow rate, low pressure
phase flow characteristics in microchannels, Int. J. Multiphase Flow 30 drop mini-channel and microchannel heat sink, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 37
(2004) 735e761. (1994) 331e332.
[61] J. Lee, I. Mudawar, Two-phase flow in high-heat-flux micro-channel heat [90] B.X. Wang, X.F. Peng, Experimental investigation on liquid forced convection
sink for refrigeration cooling applications: part IIdheat transfer character- heat transfer through microchannels, Int. J. Heat Transf. 37 (1994) 73e82.
istics, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 48 (2005) 941e955. [91] H. Herwig, S.P. Mahulikar, Variable property effects in single-phase incom-
[62] M.N. Kashid, I. Gerlach, S. Goetz, J. Franzke, J.F. Acker, F. Platte, D.W. Agar, pressible flows through microchannels, Int. J. Therm. Sci. 45 (2006) 977e981.
S. Turek, Internal circulation within the liquid slugs of liquideliquid slug [92] Y. Sui, P.S. Lee, C.J. Teo, An experimental study of flow friction and heat
flow capillary microreactor, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 44 (2005) 5003e5010. transfer in wavy microchannels with rectangular cross section, Int. J. Therm.
[63] J. Barber, D. Brutin, K. Sefiane, L. Tadrist, Bubble confinement in flow boiling Sci. 50 (2011) 2473e2482.
of FC-72 in a ‘‘rectangular” microchannel of high aspect ratio, Exp. Therm. [93] J.G. Collier, J.R. Thome, Convective Boiling and Condensation, third ed., Ox-
Fluid Sci. 34 (2010) 1375e1388. ford University Press, Oxford, 1994.
[64] M.P. David, J.E. Steinbrenner, J. Miler, K.E. Goodson, Adiabatic and diabatic [94] T.H. Yen, M. Shoji, F. Takemura, Y. Suzuki, N. Kasagi, Visualization of
two-phase venting flow in a microchannel, Int. J. Multiphase Flow 37 (2011) convective boiling heat transfer in single microchannels with different
1135e1146. shaped cross-sections, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 49 (2006) 3884e3894.
[65] G.F. Hewitt, D.N. Roberts, Studies of Two-phase Flow Patterns by Simulta- [95] R. Zhuan, W. Wang, Simulation on nucleate boiling in microchannel, Int. J.
neous X-ray and Flash Photography, Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Heat Mass Transf. 53 (2010) 502e512.
1969. Harwell, Report No. AERE-M 2159. [96] M.S. Plesset, S.A. Zwick, Growth of vapor bubbles in superheated liquids,
[66] Y. Taitel, A.E. Dukler, A model for predicting flow regime transitions in Appl. Phys. 25 (1954) 493e500.
horizontal and near horizontal gas-liquid flow, AIChE J. 22 (1976) 47e55. [97] H.K. Forster, N. Zuber, Growth of a vapor bubbles in superheated liquid, Appl.
[67] N. Kattan, J.R. Thome, D. Favrat, Flow boiling in horizontal tubesdpart I: Phys. 25 (1954) 474e478.
development of a diabatic two-phase flow pattern map, J. Heat Transf. 120 [98] M.S. Plesset, A. Prosperetti, Bubble dynamics and cavitation, Annu. Rev. Fluid
(1998) 140e147. Mech. 9 (1977) 145e185.
[68] N. Kattan, J.R. Thome, D. Favrat, Flow boiling in horizontal tubesdpart II: [99] S.T. Kadam, R. Kumar, K. Baghel, Simplified model for prediction of bubble
new heat transfer data for five refrigerants, J. Heat Transf. 120 (1998) growth in microchannels, J. Heat Transf. 136 (2014), http://dx.doi.org/
148e155. 10.1115/1.4026609.
[69] N. Kattan, J.R. Thome, D. Favrat, Flow boiling in horizontal tubesdpart III: [100] K. Choo, S.J. Kim, Heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of nonboiling
development of a new heat transfer model based on flow patterns, J. Heat two-phase flow in microchannels, J. Heat Transf. 133 (2011), http://
Transf. 120 (1998) 156e165. dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.4004208.
[70] K.A. Triplett, S.M. Ghiaasiaan, S.I. Abdel-Khalik, D.L. Sadowski, Gaseliquid [101] C.C. Wang, W.J. Chang, C.D. Dai, Y.T. Lin, K.S. Yang, Effect of inclination on the
two-phase flow in microchannels part I: two-phase flow patterns, Int. J. convective boiling performance of a microchannel heat sink using HFE-7100,
Multiphase Flow 25 (1999) 377e394. Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci. 36 (2012) 143e148.
[71] T. Harirchian, S.V. Garimella, A comprehensive flow regime map for micro- [102] R.J. Vidmar, R.J. Barker, Microchannel cooling for a high-energy particle
channel flow boiling with quantitative transition criteria, Int. J. Heat Mass transmission window, an RF transmission window, and VLSI heat dissipa-
Transf. 53 (2010) 2694e2702. tion, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 26 (1998) 1031e1043.
[72] A. Sur, D. Liu, Adiabatic air-water two-phase flow in circular microchannels, [103] R. Nacke, B. Northcutt, I. Mudawar, Theory and experimental validation of
Int. J. Therm. Sci. 53 (2012) 18e34. cross-flow micro-channel heat exchanger module with reference to high
[73] D. Liu, P.S. Lee, S.V. Garimella, Prediction of the onset of nucleate boiling in Mach aircraft gas turbine engines, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 54 (2011)
microchannels flow, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 48 (2005) 5134e5149. 1224e1235.
[74] Y.Y. Hsu, On the size range of active nucleation cavities on a heating surface, [104] A. Koyuncuoglu, R. Jafari, T.O. Ozyurt, H. Kulah, Heat transfer and pressure
J. Heat Transf. 84 (1962) 207e216. drop experiments on CMOS compatible microchannel heat sinks for mono-
[75] S. Meder, Study on Bubble Growth Rate in a Single Microchannel Heat lithic chip cooling applications, Int. J. Therm. Sci. 56 (2012) 77e85.
Exchanger with High-speed CMOS-camera (Master Thesis), Swiss Federal [105] S.S. Bertsch, E.A. Groll, S.V. Garimella, A composite heat transfer correlation
Institute Of Technology, Zurich And Stanford University California, 2007. for saturated flow boiling in small channels, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 52
[76] D. Bogojevic, K. Sefiane, D. Duursma, A.J. Walton, Bubble dynamics and flow (2009) 2110e2118.
boiling instabilities in microchannels, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 58 (2013) [106] S.L. Qi, P. Zhang, R.Z. Wang, L.X. Xu, Flow boiling of liquid nitrogen in micro-
663e675. tubes: part I e the onset of nucleate boiling, two-phase flow instability and
[77] M. Lee, Y.Y. Wong, M. Wong, Y. Zohar, Size and shape effects on two-phase two-phase flow pressure drop, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 50 (2007)
flow patterns in microchannel forced convection boiling, J. Micromech. 4999e5016.
Microeng. 13 (2003) 155e164. [107] K.H. Chang, C. Pan, Two-phase flow instability for boiling in a microchannel
[78] X. Fu, P. Zhang, C.J. Huang, R.Z. Wang, Bubble growth, departure and the heat sink, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 50 (2007) 2078e2088.
following flow pattern evolution during flow boiling in a mini-tube, Int. J. [108] D. Bogojevic, K. Sefiane, A.J. Walton, H. Lin, G. Cummins, Two-phase flow
Heat Mass Transf. 53 (2010) 4819e4831. instabilities in a silicon microchannels heat sink, Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 30
[79] S. Gedupudi, Y.Q. Zu, T.G. Karayiannis, D.B.R. Kenning, Y.Y. Yan, Confined (2009) 854e867.
bubble growth during flow boiling in a mini/micro-channel of rectangular [109] A.E. Bergles, S.G. Kandlikar, On the nature of critical heat flux in micro-
cross-section part I: experiments and 1-D modeling, Int. J. Therm. Sci. 50 channels, J. Heat Transf. 127 (2005) 101e107.
(2011) 250e266. [110] S.G. Kandlikar, Nucleation characteristics and stability considerations
[80] L. Yin, L. Jia, P. Guan, F. Liu, An experimental investigation on the confined during flow boiling in microchannels, Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci. 30 (2006)
and elongated bubbles in subcooled flow boiling in a single microchannel, 441e447.
J. Therm. Sci. 21 (2012) 549e556. [111] H. Tuo, P. Hrnjak, Periodical reverse flow and boiling fluctuations in a
[81] H. Tuo, P. Hrnjak, Visualization and measurement of periodic reverse flow microchannel evaporator of an air-conditioning system, Int. J. Refrig. 36
and boiling fluctuations in a microchannel evaporator of an air-conditioning (2013) 1263e1275.
system, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 71 (2014) 639e652. [112] W.K. Kuan, S.G. Kandlikar, Experimental study on the effect of stabilization
[82] W. Qu, I. Mudawar, Experimental and numerical study of pressure drop and on flow boiling heat transfer in microchannels, Heat Transf. Eng. 28 (2007)
heat transfer in a single-phase micro-channel heat sink, Int. J. Heat Mass 746e752.
Transf. 45 (2002) 2549e2565. [113] C.J. Kuo, Y. Peles, Flow boiling instabilities in microchannels and means or
[83] M. Akbari, D. Sinton, M. Bahrami, Pressure drop in rectangular microchannels mitigation by reentrant cavities, J. Heat Transf. 130 (2008), http://dx.doi.org/
as compared with theory based on arbitrary cross section, J. Fluids Eng. 131 10.1115/1.2908431.
(2009), http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.3077143. [114] J. Xu, G. Liu, W. Zhang, Q. Li, B. Wang, Seed bubbles stabilize flow and heat
[84] W. Peiyi, W.A. Little, Measurement of friction factors for the flow of gases in transfer in parallel microchannels, Int. J. Multiphase Flow 35 (2009)
very fine channels used for microminiature JouleeThomson refrigerator, 773e790.
Cryogenics 23 (1983) 73e277. [115] G. Liu, J. Xu, Y. Yang, W. Zhang, Active control of flow and heat transfer in
[85] J. Lee, I. Mudawar, Fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of low tem- silicon microchannels, J. Micromech. Microeng. 20 (2010) 1e16.
perature two-phase micro-channel heat sinks e part 2. subcooled boiling [116] J.R. Thome, V. Dupont, Heat Transfer Assembly, European Patent EP 1779052
pressure drop and heat transfer, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 51 (2008) B1, 2007.
4327e4341. [117] Y. Han, N. Shikazono, Stabilization of flow boiling in a micro tube with air
[86] W. Qu, I. Mudawar, Measurement and prediction of pressure drop in two- injection, Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci. 35 (2011) 1255e1264.
phase micro-channel heat sinks, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 46 (2003) [118] H. Tuo, P. Hrnjak, New approach to improve performance by venting peri-
2737e2753. odic reverse vapor flow in microchannel evaporator, Int. J. Refrig. 36 (2013)
[87] P.S. Lee, S.V. Garimella, Saturated flow boiling heat transfer and pressure 2187e2195.
drop in silicon microchannel arrays, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 51 (2008) [119] J.M. Yin, C.W. Bullard, P.S. Hrnjak, Single phase pressure drop measurements
789e806. in a microchannel heat exchanger, Heat Transf. Eng. 23 (2002) 1e10.
[88] H.T. Phan, N. Caney, P. Marty, S. Colasson, J. Gavillet, Flow boiling of water in [120] O. Tonomura, S. Tanaka, M. Noda, M. Kano, S. Hasebe, I. Hashimoto, CFD-
a minichannel: the effects of surface wettability on two-phase pressure drop, based optimal design of manifold in plate-fin microdevices, Chem. Eng. J. 101
J. Therm. Eng. 31 (2011) 1894e1905. (2004) 397e402.
[121] E.S. Cho, J.W. Choi, J.S. Yoon, M.S. Kim, Experimental study on microchannel [124] H. Tuo, P. Hrnjak, Effect of the header pressure drop induced flow maldis-
heat sinks considering mass flow distribution with non-uniform heat flux tribution on the microchannel evaporator performance, Int. J. Refrig. 36
conditions, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 53 (2010) 2159e2168. (2013) 2176e2186.
[122] E.S. Cho, J.W. Choi, J.S. Yoon, M.S. Kim, Modeling and simulation on the mass [125] S. Szczukiewicz, N. Borhani, J.R. Thome, Two-phase flow operational maps for
flow distribution in microchannel heat sinks with non uniform heat flux multi-microchannel evaporators, Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 42 (2013) 176e189.
conditions, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 53 (2010) 1341e1348. [126] S. Kakac, B.A. Bon, A review of two-phase flow dynamic instabilities in tube
[123] G. Kumaraguruparan, R.M. Kumaran, T. Sornakumar, T. Sundararajan, boiling systems, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 51 (2008) 399e433.
A numerical and experimental investigation of flow maldistribution in a [127] T. Zhang, T. Tong, J.Y. Chang, Y. Peles, R. Prasher, M.K. Jensen, J.T. Wen,
microchannel heat sink, Int. Commun. Heat Mass Transf. 380 (2011) P. Phelan, Ledinegg instability in microchannels, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 52
1349e1353. (2009) 5661e5674.

Microchannel Article

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Microchannel Article

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Microchannel Article

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

International Journal of Thermal Sciences 85 (2014) 73e92

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Thermal Sciences

Twenty ﬁrst century cooling solution: Microchannel heat sinks

Sr no Author Fluid Microchannel geometry (W, H, D) (mm) Material Operating condition

Bubbly, churn, slug-annular ﬂows were absent for 50 and 100 mm

R-134a 1.95 1206 32.35 0.081 177.78 0.0080 0 1300

Fig. 6. Complete bubble dynamics in microchannel.

Author Channel geometry and Operating condition Correlations

Author and year Channels geometry and Operating parameter Correlation

Author and year Channel geometry and Operating condition Correlation

water and air Vg ¼ 1.24e40.1 m/s, *

40000 periodic amplitude ﬂow oscillation, which arose due to interaction

pressure drop oscillation may result into growing and shrinking of

instability and ﬂow reversal instability by acting as host for active

microchannels. Phenomena like bubble suppression, bubble G mass ﬂux (kg/m2 s)

You might also like