University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Liquid vapor phase change for highly efficient and sustainable cooling

Mousa, Mohamed Hatem Abdelsadek Ahmed

Content Files
MOUSA-DISSERTATION-2022.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115862

Description

Title
Liquid vapor phase change for highly efficient and sustainable cooling
Author(s)
Mousa, Mohamed Hatem Abdelsadek Ahmed
Issue Date
2022-06-06
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Miljkovic, Nenad
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Miljkovic, Nenad
Committee Member(s)
  • Jacobi, Anthony
  • Elbel, Stefan
  • Nawaz, Kashif
Department of Study
Mechanical Sci & Engineering
Discipline
Mechanical Engineering
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • heat transfer
  • droplet evaporation
  • thermocouple
  • interface
  • ambient evaporative cooling
  • Heat transfer augmentation
  • Swirl flow
  • Pressure drop
  • Passive heat transfer
  • Active heat transfer
  • Nusselt number
  • Friction factor
  • Twisted tape
  • Insert
  • Internal flow
  • Boundary layer
Abstract
Liquid-vapor phase change of water is an essential and complex phenomenon germane to many natural and industrial systems. Desirable characteristics such as high latent heat, wide availability, non-toxicity, and low cost, allow water to become the ideal fluid to extract heat in many powerplant and electronic related applications. This is especially important recently as effective thermal management has become a critical bottleneck that hinders further advancements in new technologies that continue to increase in functionality and heat generation. Typically, two-phase flow boiling and evaporation are the two most widely adopted techniques to extract heat. Given their ubiquitous importance in cooling applications, understanding the underlying physics that govern both is paramount to fully maximizing their potential. In doing so, we are able to attain more efficient systems that are more cost-effective and sustainable. To gain a fundamental understanding of thermal transport during evaporation, past approaches have utilized optical, shadowgraph, and infrared (IR) imaging. Although such methods can reveal rich information, they are unable to quantify the temperature of the surrounding gas phase. To overcome this challenge, others have used a micro-thermocouple to probe the temperature distribution around or near the liquid-vapor interface of a sessile droplet. However, in these past investigations, the spatial resolution of measured temperatures near the liquid-vapor interface was limited and the sessile droplet varied in size while the temperatures were acquired. To provide a better understanding of the liquid-vapor phase change phenomenon, a platform that would overcome past difficulties encountered during the study of droplet evaporation is required. This dissertation proposes we develop such a platform by coupling a piezo-driven droplet generation mechanism to a controlled micro-thermocouple to probe microdroplet evaporation. Although evaporation provides effective means for thermal management, it is only appropriate for sub-saturation temperatures. Alternatively, two-phase flow boiling allows heat extraction at higher temperatures. The rate of heat extraction during flow boiling is greatly influenced by the surface topology. Previous studies to enhance heat transfer utilized different techniques such as inserts, surfactants, dimples, extended surfaces, ribs, vortex generators, and many more. These techniques depend on geometric modifications to induce turbulence and create additional nucleation sites to augment the heat transfer. In order to extend on these augmentation techniques, this dissertation also investigates the feasibility of microstructures in enhancing heat transfer in copper and aluminum tubes.
Graduation Semester
2022-08
Type of Resource
Thesis
Handle URL
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115862
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2022 Mohamed Mousa

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