EXPLORATION OF EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES TO DETERMINE THE CONDENSATION HEAT FLUX IN MICROCHANNELS AND MINICHANNELS

This study seeks to analyze and explore experimental methods to study condensation heat transfer in micro- and mini-channel. Following, an experimental setup was built and initial results are presented. Several experimental techniques were reviewed, while two, thermoelectric coolers and a copper-heat-flux-sensor were analyzed in detail for condensation heat flux. It was concluded that thermoelectric coolers were not suitable as heat flux sensors for single-phase validation, but the copper-heat-flux-sensor was appropriate to measure heat transfer coefficients at the mini-scale. Condensation heat transfer coefficients were obtained experimentally in seven parallel square mini-channels of diameter 1 mm. Existing condensation correlations were applied to these data; micro- and mini-scale correlations captured the appropriate trends, but the macro-scale Shah (1979) correlation fit the data best.