Local nucleation propagation on heat transfer uniformity during subcooled convective boiling

Convective boiling heat transfer is an efficient cooling mechanism to dissipate amount of thermal energy by accompanying the phase transition of the working fluids. Particularly, the amount of heat dissipation capacity can be readily extensible by increasing the degree of subcooling due to initial demands requiring for coolant saturation. Under severely subcooled condition of 60°, we investigate boiling heat transfer phenomena regarding spatial heat transfer uniformity and stability on a planar surface. Severe subcooling can induce locally concentrated thermal loads due to poor spatial uniformity of the heat transfer. For reliable cooling, a high degree of spatial uniformity of the heat transfer should be guaranteed with minimized spatial deviation of heat transfer characteristics. Under pre-requisite safeguards below CHF, we experimentally elucidate the principal factors affecting the spatial uniformity of the heat transfer for a flow/thermal boundary layer considering heat transfer domains from a single-phase regime to a fully-developed boiling regime. Based on the local heat transfer evaluation, we demonstrate that full nucleation boiling over the entire heat transfer surface under subcooling conditions is favorable in terms of the uniformity of heat dissipation through the phase-change of the working fluid.