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Experiments were conducted to study the flow and heat transfer characteristics of a natural circulation liquid cooling system for electronic components. The test loop consisted of a horizontal test section, a horizontal evaporator, a vertical tube, a horizontal condenser, a rubber bag attached at the exit of the condenser, a downcomer, a mass flow meter, and a liquid subcooler. The loop height H was set at either 250 or 450 mm. FC-72 was filled in the test loop up to some level of loop height and the upper part was filled with air. During the operation of the cooling system, the rubber bag expanded and stored the mixture of generated vapor and air. Thus the inner pressure was maintained at atmospheric pressure. In the test section, a silicon chip with dimensions of 10×10×0.5 mm3 was attached at the bottom surface of a horizontal duct with dimensions of 10×14 mm2. A smooth chip and four chips with square micro-pin-fins with 150 to 300 μm in fin height were tested. The duct height s was set at 10 mm for most of the experiments. The cases of s=1 and 25 mm were also tested for one of the micro-pin-finned chips. For each H, the average flow rate of FC-72 was correlated well as a function of the static pressure difference between the two vertical tubes. All chips showed the boiling curve similar to that for pool boiling except that the critical heat flux was lower for the natural circulation loop. For all chips tested, the maximum allowable heat flux qmax increased monotonically with increasing liquid subcooling ΔTsub. Comparison of the results for s=1, 10 and 25 mm revealed that the highest qmax was obtained with s=10 mm. The values of qmax for s=1 and 25 mm were 36–46% and 87–90% of that for s=10 mm, respectively. The maximum value of qmax=56 W/cm2 was obtained by one of the micro-pin-finned chips at s=10 mm and ΔTsub=35 K.

Experimental results are presented that show the effect of fin geometry on condensation of downward flowing zeotropic refrigerant mixture R407C in a staggered bundle of horizontal finned tubes. Two types of conventional low-fin tubes and three types of three-dimensional-fin tubes were tested. The refrigerant mass velocity ranged from 4 to 23 kg/m2 s and the condensation temperature difference from 3 to 12 K. The measured condensation heat transfer coefficient was lower than the previous results for R134a, with the difference being more significant for smaller mass velocity. The effect of fin geometry on the condensation heat transfer coefficient was less significant for R407C than for R134a. The effect of condensate inundation was more significant for the three-dimensional-fin tubes than for the low-fin tubes. By using the dimensionless heat transfer correlation for the condensate film that was based on the experimental data for R134a, a superficial vapor-phase heat transfer coefficient was obtained for condensation of R407C. The vapor-phase heat transfer coefficient showed characteristics similar to the vapor-phase mass transfer coefficient that was obtained in the previous study for R123/R134a.

Experiments were conducted to obtain row-by-row heat transfer data during condensation of downward-flowing zeotropic refrigerant mixture HCFC-123/HFC-134a on a 3 × 75 (columns × rows) staggered bundle of horizontal low-finned tubes. The vapor temperature and the HFC-134a mass fraction at the tube bundle inlet were maintained at about 50°C and nine percent, respectively. The refrigerant mass velocity ranged from 9 to 34 kg/m2 s, and the condensation temperature difference from 3 to 12 K. The measured distribution of the vapor mass fraction in the tube bundle agreed fairly well with that of the equilibrium vapor mass fraction. The vapor phase mass transfer coefficient was obtained from the heat transfer data by subtracting the thermal resistance of the condensate film. The heat transfer coefficient and the mass transfer coefficient decreased significantly with decreasing mass velocity. These values first increased with the row number up to the third (or second) row, then decreased monotonically with further increasing row number, and then increased again at the last row. The mass transfer coefficient increased with condensation temperature difference, which was due to the effect of suction associated with condensation. On the basis of the analogy between heat and mass transfer, a dimensionless correlation of the mass transfer coefficient for the 4th to 14th rows was developed.