Flow in the converging mini-channels

Abstract

Recently mini-channels or micro-channels are widely used for cooling the high density power electronic devices. Especially, the channels are used in small and high efficient equipments such as heat pipes and heat exchangers. Interfacial velocities between liquid and gas phases are very important in mini or micro-channels. In this paper, an experiment and a numerical analysis on the interfacial velocities were performed. In the experiment, the interfacial velocities which were measured by the high-speed CCD camera were about 26-33 cm/s and the velocities increased as the inclination angle did. In the numerical experiment, CFD-ACE+, a commercial program, was used, the velocities had similar values with experimental results. As the inclination angle and the contact angle increased, the interfacial velocities did because of the surface tension which causes to move the interface. The effect of inclination angle was larger in the converging channels than in straight channels.