Heat Transfer Analysis and Estimation of CHF in Vertical Channel

Heat transfer occurs in flow boiling; as a result, the amount of heat between the tube wall surface and the fluid at different points of the tube may vary depending on the volume percent of vapor at those points. If the flow is fully vaporized, it does not allow for perfect heat transfer at that point; this significantly increases the temperature there; in this case the applied heat flux is called critical heat flux (CHF). The present paper has focused its attentions on simulating a two-phase fluid flow within the CHF range using ANSYS Fluent. The simulation results indicated an average error below 7%, which is more than those obtained by the experimental results. The maximum temperature of the tube surface when applying CHF could range between 200 and 500 K degrees more than that of fluid saturation according to the fluid working conditions. It also should be noted that both CHF and maximum temperature increase as the input pressure and mass flux do increase.