Bubble Dynamics and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Flow Boiling in a Single Pentagonal Rib Channel

Abstract Two-phase flow boiling is the preferred method for efficient heat dissipation in electronic equipment, so the bubble dynamics and heat transfer characteristics of flow boiling in a single pentagonal rib channel are numerically analyzed by the volume of fluid (VOF) model. Three typical rib structures are obtained, whose block ratios are 0.4, 0.75, and 0.25, and the corresponding length-diameter ratios are 1.72, 0.59, and 12.70, respectively. The Reynolds number is 14,000 and 28,000. The heat flux is set from 50 to 150 kW/m2. The results show that the starting position of the bubble is at the cone and sides of the rib, and its moving direction is related to the configuration of the rib, the heat flux, and fluid velocity. Additionally, the bubbles are shedding at the corner of the rib, and the short rib does not appear to be the vortex shedding phenomenon. The wall temperature and temperature fluctuation increase with the increase of heat flux and with the decrease of fluid velocity. The heat transfer coefficient decreases with the increase of heat flux and with the decrease of fluid velocity. The short rib channel has a higher heat transfer coefficient, approximately 14% and 50% higher than that of the median and long rib channels, respectively. Compared with the single-phase flow, the main frequency of the lift coefficient increases with the increase of the fluid velocity while decreasing with the increase of heat flux. The main frequency of the median rib without harmonic signal keeps constant, and that for long rib decreases by 38%. The study of the instantaneous characteristics of bubble growth in pentagonal rib channels is instructive to the efficient heat dissipation in electronic equipment.