Characterization of local boiling trends, in addition to the typically reported area-averaged trends, is essential for the robust design and implementation of phase change technologies to sensitive heat transfer applications such as electronics cooling. Obtaining the values of heat fluxes corresponding to locally varying surface temperatures has been a challenge limiting most investigations to area-averaged results. This thesis illustrates the importance of a spatially local heat transfer analysis during boiling. Pool and submerged jet impingement boiling scenarios on a silicon surface are considered at the macroscale (27.5 mm heater with multiple nucleation sites) and microscale (1000 ��m heater for isolated bubble generation), by the use of two thin film serpentine heater geometries. The macroscale heater highlights the effect of spatial variations in imposed heat flux on boiling heat transfer with a circumferentially uniform but radially non-uniform heat flux distribution. The microscale heater simulates a local hot-spot for spot cooling on an electronic device. Spatial variation in boiling heat transfer and bubble dynamics with and without a jet flow are documented using thin film voltage sensors along with qualitative and quantitative high speed imaging and infra-red thermography. Unique to this study is the documentation of local boiling curves for different radial locations on the heat transfer surface and their comparison with the corresponding area-averaged representations. It is shown here that sectionally averaged representations of boiling curves over regions of like-imposed heat flux can substantially simplify the interpretation of data while retaining important information of the local variations in heat transfer. The radial influence of the convective jet flow on the bubble dynamics and boiling heat transfer is assessed for a single circular submerged jet configuration. Varied parameters include jet exit Reynolds numbers, nozzle geometry, test fluid (deionized water and FC-72), fluid subcooling and the supplied heat flux. Distinct modifications of the surface temperature distribution imposed by the impinging jet flow are highlighted by comparing radial temperature profiles during pool and jet impingement boiling. It is demonstrated that in contrast with pool boiling, thermal overshoots during jet impingement boiling for a highly wetting fluid like FC-72 are highest in regions farthest from the impingement point. The effect of jet inertia on bubble departure characteristics are compared with pool boiling under subcooled conditions for FC-72. Qualitative high speed visualization indicates the presence of two modes of bubble generation during jet impingement boiling (a) bubble departure from the surface and (b) bubble separation from the source resulting in sliding bubbles over the surface. The effect of jet flow on bubble entrainment is depicted. Quantitative results indicate that in general departure diameters for pool and jet impingement boiling increase and plateau at a maximum value with increasing power input while no notable trends were observed in the corresponding departure frequencies. The largest departure diameters for jet impingement boiling at fixed fluid subcoolings of 10��C and 20��C were found to be smaller than that for the corresponding pool boiling test by a factor of 1.6 and 2.3, respectively. / Graduation date: 2013

Microchannel heat exchangers present many advantages, such as reduced size, high thermal efficiency and low fluid inventory; and are increasingly being used for heat transfer in a wide variety of applications including heat pumps, automotive air conditioners and for cooling of electronics.However, the fundamentals of fluid flow and heat transfer in microscalegeometries are not yet fully understood. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to a better understanding of the underlying physical phenomena in single-phase and specially flow boiling heat transfer of refrigerants in small channels. For this purpose, well-characterized heat transfer experiments have been performed in uniformly heated, single, circular, vertical channels ranging from 0.64 to 1.70 mm in diameter and using R-134a, R-22 and R-245fa as working fluids. Furthermore, flow visualization tests have been carried out to clarify the relation between the two-phase flow behavior and the boiling heat transfer characteristics. Single-phase flow experiments with subcooled liquid refrigerant have confirmed that conventional macroscale theory on single-phase flow and heat transfer is valid for circular channels as small as 640μm in diameter. Through high-speed flow boiling visualization of R-134a under non adiabatic conditions seven flow patterns have been observed: isolated bubbly flow, confined bubbly flow, slug flow, churn flow, slug-annular flow, annular flow, and mist flow. Two-phase flow pattern observations are presented in the form of flow pattern maps. Annular-type flow patterns are dominant for vapor qualities above 0.2. Onset of nucleate boiling and subcooled flow boiling heat transfer of R-134a has been investigated. The wall superheat needed to initiate boiling was found as large as 18 ºC. The experimental heat transfer coefficients have been compared to predictions from subcooled flow boiling correlationsav ailable in the literature showing poor agreement. Saturated flow boiling heat transfer experiments have been performed with the 640 μm diameter test section. The heat transfer coefficient has been found to increase with heat flux and system pressure and not to change with vapor quality or mass flux when the quality is less than ∼0.5. For vapor qualities above this value, the heat transfer coefficient decreases with vapor quality. This deterioration of the heat transfer coefficient is believed to be caused by the occurrence of intermittent dryout in this vapor quality range. The experimental database, consisting of 1027 data points, has been compared against predictions from correlations available in the literature. The best results are obtained with the correlations by Liu and Winterton (1991) and by Bertsch et al. (2009). However, better design tools to correctly predict the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient in small geometries need to be developed. Dryout incipience and critical heat flux (CHF) have been investigated in detail. CHF data is compared to existing macro and microscale correlations. The comparison shows best agreement with the classical Katto and Ohno (1984) correlation, developed for conventional large tubes. / QC 20101101

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Die vorliegende Dissertationsschrift beinhaltet die Ergebnisse der Untersuchung von loka-len und globalen Prozessen der Wärmeübertragung beim unterkühlten Strömungssieden. Sie ist an der Schnittstelle zwischen Reaktorsicherheitsforschung und der experimentellen Thermofluiddynamik für Phasenübergänge einzuordnen. In technischen Anwendungen zur effizienten Übertragung großer Wärmemengen spielt der Prozess des Siedens eine wichtige Rolle. Dieser Vorgang bewirkt einen starken Anstieg des Wärmetransportes von der beizten Wand an das Fluid bei vergleichsweise geringem Anstieg der Wandtemperatur. Der maximal übertragbare Wärmestrom beim Sieden wird begrenzt durch die sogenannte kritische Wärmestromdichte, deren Überschreitung zum thermomechanischen Versagen der beheizten Komponente führen kann. Aufgrund der Komplexität dieser Prozesse ist es trotz intensiver Arbeiten in den letzten Jahrzehnten noch nicht gelungen, diese Vorgänge detailliert zu modellieren. Eine Weiter-entwicklung der Modelle zur realistischen Beschreibung des unterkühlten Strömungssie-dens erfordert neuartige Untersuchungen, welche eine genaue Klassifizierung der partiellen Wärmeübergänge des Blasensiedens ermöglichen. Die Analyse partieller Wärmetransportgrößen beim unterkühlten Strömungssieden sowie der Einfluss variierender thermohydraulischer Randbedingungen ist Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit. In der entwickelten Versuchsanlage erfolgt die Erfassung der Siedevorgänge bei Strömungsgeschwindigkeiten von 0,1 – 2 m/s und Eintrittstemperaturen von 60 - 98 °C. Mit Hilfe empfindlicher Temperaturmessungen in einem elektrisch beheizten Kapillarrohr innerhalb des Strömungskanals werden die globalen Vorgänge beim Übergang von Kon-vektion zum Sieden erfasst. Durch eine modellbasierte Bestimmung der Oberflächentem-peratur lassen sich Phänomene nachweisen, welche bisher weitestgehend unbeachtet ge-blieben sind. Die transparente Versuchsstrecke ermöglicht eine Erfassung der lokalen Sie-devorgänge mit optisch und zeitlich hochauflösenden Messverfahren. Durch die Entwick-lung neuer Algorithmen der digitalen Bildverarbeitung wurde eine umfangreiche, kenngrö-ßenorientierte Auswertung der in großem Umfang entstandenen Datenmengen realisiert. Der Einsatz transparenter und elektrisch leitfähiger Beschichtungen ermöglicht die mikro-skopische Erfassung des Blasenwachstums in weiten thermohydraulischen Parameterberei-chen. Mit erweiterten Bildverarbeitungsalgorithmen erfolgt die detaillierte und dynamische Bewertung des Blasenwachstumsverhaltens. Die statistische Auswertung der Verläufe er-möglicht die Ableitung eines Blasenwachstumsmodells für unterkühltes Strömungssieden. In einer weiteren Versuchsanordnung werden die lokalen Wärmetransportvorgänge bei der Ablösung quasistatisch gewachsener Blasen mit Hilfe der Infrarot-Thermographie be-stimmt. Dadurch können erstmalig die aus der lokalen Abkühlung der beheizten Oberfläche durch Blasenablösung resultierenden Wärmeströme unter Vernachlässigung der Bla-senbildung experimentell quantifiziert werden. Weiterhin können die bisher theoretisch beschriebenen Driftströmungen beim Aufstieg der Blase experimentell nachgewiesen wer-den. Die ermittelten Größen und Zusammenhänge tragen zur Weiterentwicklung und zum Abbau von Unsicherheiten bei der Modellierung von Wärmetransportvorgängen beim unterkühlten Strömungssieden bei.

<div>Thermal management in next generation power electronic devices, radar applications and semiconductor packaging architectures is becoming increasingly challenging due to the need to reject localized high heat fluxes as well as large total powers. Air cooling has been considered as a simple and reliable method for thermal management compared to architectures that incorporate liquid cooling. However, air-cooled heat sinks typically require effective heat spreading to provide the requisite level of area enhancement to dissipate high heat fluxes. Compared to solid metallic heat spreaders, advanced heat sinks that incorporate two-phase heat transfer devices such as vapor chambers can significantly enhance the power dissipation capabilities in such configurations. Vapor chambers are devices that utilize evaporation/boiling processes within a sealed cavity to achieve efficient heat spreading. In high-heat-flux applications, boiling can occur within the internal wick structure of the vapor chamber at the location of the heat input (i.e., the evaporator). The maximum dryout heat flux and thermal resistance of the device is dictated by the resulting two-phase flow and heat transfer in the porous evaporator due to boiling. While various works in the literature have introduced new evaporator wick designs to improve the dryout heat flux during boiling, the enhancement is limited to small, millimeter scale hotspots or at a very high thermal resistance. In additixon, the effective design of such evaporator systems requires mechanistic models that can accurately predict the dryout limit and thermal performance. </div><div> This thesis first explores the usage of a novel ‘two-layer’ evaporator wick for passive high heat flux dissipation over large heater areas at a low thermal resistance. Moreover, a new mechanistic (first principles based) model framework is introduced for dryout limit and thermal performance prediction during boiling in capillary fed evaporators, by considering the resulting simultaneous flow of two phases (liquid and vapor) within the microscale porous media.</div><div> The novel two-layer wick concept uses a thick ‘cap’ layer of porous material to feed liquid to a thin ‘base’ layer through an array of vertical liquid-feeding ‘posts’. Vapor ‘vents’ in the cap layer allow for vapor formed during the boiling process (which is constrained to the base layer) to escape out of the wick. This two-layer structure decouples the functions of liquid resupply and capillary-fed boiling heat transfer, making the design realize high heat flux dissipation greater than 500 W/cm2 over large heat input areas of ~1 cm2. A reduced-order model is first developed to demonstrate the performance of a vapor chamber incorporating such a two-layer evaporator wick design. The model comprises simplified hydraulic and thermal resistance networks for predicting the capillary-limited maximum heat flux and the overall thermal resistance, respectively. The reduced-order model is validated against a higher fidelity numerical model and then used to analyze the performance of the vapor chamber with varying two-layer wick geometric feature sizes. The fabrication of the proposed two-layer wick is then presented. The thermal performance of the fabricated wicks is characterized using a boiling test facility that utilizes high speed visualization to identify the characteristic regimes of boiling operation in the wicks. The performance is also benchmarked to conventional single-layer wicks. </div><div> It is observed that single-layer wicks exhibit an unfavorable boiling regime where the center of the heater area dries out locally, leading to a high value of thermal resistance. The two-layer wicks avoid local dryout due to the distributed feeding provided by the posts and enhance the dryout heat flux significantly compared to single-layer wicks. A two-layer design that consists of a 10 × 10 array of liquid feeding posts provided a 400% improvement in the dryout heat flux. Following a parametric analysis of the effect of particle size, two-layer wicks composed of 180 – 212 µm particles and a 15 × 15 array of liquid feeding posts yielded a maximum heat flux dissipation of 485 W/cm2 over a 1 cm2 heat input area while also maintaining a low thermal resistance of only ~0.052 K/W. The effect of vapor venting and liquid-feeding areas is also experimentally studied. By understanding these effects, a parametrically optimized design is fabricated and shown to demonstrate an extremely high dryout limit of 512 W/cm2. We identify that the unique area-scalability of the two-layer wick design allows it to achieve an unprecedented combination of high total power and low-thermal-resistance heat dissipation over larger areas than was previously possible in the literature.</div><div> The results from the characterization of two-layer wicks revealed that the overall performance of the design was limited by the boiling process in the thin base wick layer. A fundamental model-based understanding of the resulting two-phase flow and heat transfer process in such thin capillary-fed porous media was still lacking. This lack of a mechanistic model precluded the accurate prediction of dryout heat flux and thermal performance of the two-layer wick. Moreover, such an understanding is needed for the optimal design of advanced hybrid evaporator wicks that leverage capillary-fed boiling. Despite the existence of various experimental works, there are currently no mechanistic approaches that model this behavior. To fill this unmet need, this thesis presents a new semi-empirical model for prediction of dryout and thermal resistance of capillary-fed evaporator systems. Thermal conduction across the solid and volumetric evaporation within the pores are solved to obtain the temperature distribution in the porous structure. Capillary-driven lateral liquid flow from the outer periphery of the evaporator to its center, with vapor flow across the thickness, is considered to obtain the local liquid and vapor pressures. Experiments are conducted on sintered copper particle evaporators of different particle sizes and heater areas to collect data for model calibration. To demonstrate the wider applicability of the model for other types of porous evaporators, the model is further calibrated against a variety of dryout limit and thermal resistance data collected from the literature. The model is shown to predict the experimentally observed trends in the dryout limit with mean particle/pore size, heater size, and evaporator thicknesses. This physics–based modeling approach is then implemented into a vapor chamber model to predict the thermal performance limits of air-cooled heat sinks with embedded vapor chambers. The governing energy and momentum equations of a low-cost analytical vapor chamber modeling approach is coupled with the evaporator model to capture the effect of boiling in the evaporator wick. An example case study illustrating the usage of the model is demonstrated and compared to a purely evaporation-based modeling approach, for quantifying the differences in dryout limit prediction, signifying the need to account for boiling in the evaporator wick. </div><div> The understanding gained from this thesis can be utilized for the prediction of dryout and thermal performance during boiling in capillary limited evaporator systems. The work also suggests the usage of a universal relative permeability correlation for the two-phase flow configuration studied herein for capillary-fed boiling, based on a wide calibration to experimental data. The modeling framework can also be readily leveraged to find novel and unexplored designs of advanced evaporator wicks. From an application standpoint, the new vapor chamber model developed here can be used for the improved estimation of performance limits specifically when high heat fluxes are encountered by the device. This will enable better and informed design of air-cooled heat sink architectures with embedded vapor chambers for high performance applications. </div><div><br></div>

Safe and reliable operation of nuclear power plants is the basic requirement for the utilization of nuclear energy since accidents can release radioactivity and with that cause irreversible damage to human beings. Reliability and safety of nuclear reactors are highly dependent on the stability of thermal hydraulic processes occurring in them. Nucleate boiling occurs in Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) and Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) as well as in their passive safety systems during an accident. Passive safety systems are solely driven by thermal gradients and gravitational force removing residual heat from the reactor core independent of any external power supply in the case of accidents. Instability of flow boiling in these passive circuits can cause flow oscillations. These oscillations may induce insufficient local cooling and mechanical loads, which threatens the reactors’ safety. Analysis of boiling two-phase flow and associated heat and mass transfer requires an accurate modeling of flow regime transitions and prediction of boiling parameters such as void fraction, steam bubble sizes, heat transfer coefficient, etc. Flow boiling has been intensively investigated through experiments, one-dimensional codes, and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods. Costly hardware and no accessibility to all locations in complex geometries restrict the experimental investigation of flow boiling. Since one-dimensional codes such as ATHLET, RELAP and TRACE are ”lumped parameter” codes, they are unable to simulate complex flow boiling transition patterns. In the last decades, with the development of supercomputers, CFD has been considered as a useful tool to model heat and mass transfer occurring in flow boiling regimes. In many industrial applications and system designs, CFD codes and particularly the Eulerian-Eulerian (E-E) two-fluid model are quickly replacing the experimental and analytical methods. However, the application of this approach for flow boiling modelling poses a challenge for the development of bubble dynamics and wall boiling models to predict heat and mass transfer at the heating wall as well as phase-change mechanism. Many empirical and mechanistic models have been proposed for bubble dynamics modelling. Nevertheless, the validity of these models for only a narrow range of operating conditions and their uncertainties limit their applicability and consequently presently necessitate us to calibrate them for a given boundary condition via calibration factors. For that reason, the first aim of this thesis is the development of a bubble dynamics model for subcooled boiling flow, which needs no calibration factor to predict the bubble growth and detachment. This mechanistic model is formulated based on the force balance approach, physics of a single nucleated bubble and several well-developed models to cover the whole bubble life cycle including formation, growth and departure. This model considers dynamic inclination angle and contact angles between the bubble and the heating wall as well as the contribution of microlayer evaporation, thermal diffusion and condensation around the bubble cap. Validation against four experimental flow boiling data sets was conducted with no case-dependent recalibration and yielded good agreement. The second goal is the implementation of the developed bubble dynamics model in the E-E two-fluid model as a sub-model to improve the accuracy of boiling flow simulation and reduce the case dependency. This implementation requires an extension of the nucleation site activation and wall heat-partitioning models. The bubble dynamics and heat-partitioning models were coupled with the Population Balance Model (PBM) to handle bubble interactions and predict the Bubble Size Distribution (BSD). In addition, the contribution of bubble sliding to wall heat transfer, which has been rarely considered in other modelling approaches, is considered. Validation for model implementation in the E-E two-fluid model was made with ten experimental cases including R12 and R134a flow boiling in a pipe and an annulus. These test cases cover a wide range of operating parameters such as wall heat flux, fluid velocity, subcooling temperature and pressure. The validated parameters were the bubble diameter, void fraction, bubble velocity, Interfacial Area Density (IAD), bubble passing frequency, liquid and wall temperatures. Two-phase flow morphologies for an upward flow in a vertical heating pipe may change from bubbly to slug, plug, and annular flow. Since these flow patterns have a great impact on the heat and mass transfer rates, an accurate prediction of them is critical. The aim of this thesis is the implementation of the developed bubble dynamics and heat-partitioning models in the recently developed GENeralized TwO-Phase flow (GENTOP) framework for the modelling of these flow patterns transition as well. An adopted wall heat-partitioning model for high void fractions is presented and for a generic test case, flow boiling regimes of water in a vertical heating pipe were modelled using ANSYS CFX 18.2. Moreover, the impacts of wall superheat, subcooling temperature and fluid velocity on the flow boiling transition patterns and the effects of these patterns on the wall heat transfer coefficient were evaluated.:Nomenclature xi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background and motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 1.3 Outline of the thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2 State-of-the-art in modelling of subcooled flow boiling 11 2.1 Physics of boiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 2.2 Bubble growth modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2.3 CFD simulation of boiling flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 2.3.1 The Eulerian-Eulerian two-fluid model . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 2.3.2 The Population Balance Model (PBM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 2.3.3 Governing equations of the two-fluid model . . . . . . . . . . 25 2.3.4 Closure models for adiabatic bubbly flow . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 2.3.5 Phase transfer models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 2.3.6 The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) wall boiling model 37 2.4 Flow boiling transition patterns in vertical pipes . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 2.5 The GENeralized TwO-Phase flow (GENTOP) concept . . . . . . . . . 45 2.5.1 Treatment of the continuous gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 2.5.2 The Algebraic Interfacial Area Density (AIAD) model . . . . . 46 2.6 Interfacial transfers of continuous gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 2.6.1 Drag and lift forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 2.6.2 Cluster and surface tension forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 2.6.3 Complete coalescence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 2.6.4 Entrainment modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 2.6.5 Turbulence modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 2.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 3 An improved bubble dynamics model for flow boiling 55 3.1 Modelling of the bubble formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 3.1.1 Bubble growth rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 3.1.2 Force balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 ix 3.1.3 Detachment criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 3.1.4 Wall heat flux model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 3.1.5 Heat transfer in the heating wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 3.2 Results and discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 3.2.1 Discretization dependency study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 3.2.2 Model validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 3.2.3 Sensitivity analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 3.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 4 An improved wall heat-partitioning model 85 4.1 The cavity group activation model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 4.1.1 Bubble sliding length and influence area . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 4.1.2 Model implementation in the Eulerian-Eulerian framework . . 89 4.2 Results and discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 4.2.1 DEBORA experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 4.2.2 Subcooled flow boiling of R134a in an annulus . . . . . . . . 102 4.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 5 Modelling of flow boiling patterns in vertical pipes 115 5.1 Adopted wall heat-partitioning model for high void fractions . . . . . 115 5.2 Results and discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 5.2.1 Effect of wall superheat on the flow boiling transition patterns 118 5.2.2 Effect of flow morphologies on the wall heat transfer coefficient124 5.2.3 Comparison of GENTOP and Eulerian-Eulerian two-fluid models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 5.2.4 Effect of subcooling on the flow boiling transition patterns . . 129 5.2.5 Effect of inlet fluid velocity on the flow boiling transition patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 5.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 6 Conclusions and outlook 133 6.1 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 6.2 Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 References 137 Declaration 155

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1985 S337 / Master of Science

Heat management in high thermal-density systems such as CPU chips, nuclear reactors and compact heat exchangers is confronting rising challenges due to ever more miniaturized and intensified processes. While searching for heat transfer enhancement, micro-channel flow boiling and the usage of high thermal potential fluids such as nanofluids are found to be efficient heat removal approaches. However, the limited understanding of micro-scale multiphase flows impedes wider applications of these techniques. In this thesis work, liquid-vapour phase change and multiphase flow heat transfer in micro-channels were experimentally investigated. Included are studies on the single phase friction, vapour dynamics, liquid meniscus evaporation, two-phase flow instabilities and heat transfer. An experimental system was built. Rectangular microchannels with different hydraulic diameters (571 μm, 762 μm and 1454 μm) and crosssectional aspect ratios were selected. Transparent heating was utilised by coating the micro-channels with a layer of tantalum on the outer surfaces. FC-72, n-pentane, ethanol, and ethanol-based Al2O3 nanofluids were used as working fluids. Pressures and temperatures at micro-channel inlet and outlet were acquired. Simultaneous visualisation and thermographic profiles were monitored. Single phase friction of pure liquids and nanofluids mostly showed good agreement with the conventional theory. The discrepancies were associated with hydrodynamic developing flow and the early transition to turbulent flow, but nanoparticle concentration showed minor impact. After boiling incipient, the single vapour bubble growth and flow regimes were investigated, exploring the influences of flow and thermal conditions as well as the micro-channel geometry on vapour dynamics. In addition, liquid meniscus evaporation as the main heat transfer approach at thin liquid films in micro-channels was studied particularly. Nanoparticles largely enhanced meniscus stability. Besides, flow instabilities were analyzed based on the pressure drop and channel surface temperature fluctuations as well as the synchronous visualization results. Moreover, study on flow boiling heat transfer was undertaken, the corresponding heat transfer characteristics were presented and the heat transfer mechanisms were elucidated. Furthermore, ten existing heat transfer correlations were assessed. A modified heat transfer correlation for high aspect ratio micro-channel flow boiling was proposed. The crucial role of liquid property and microchannel aspect-ratio on flow boiling heat transfer was highlighted.

In order to improve the efficiency of dry used nuclear fuel (UNF) storage, reduced reactivity methods are being developed for various reactor types and operating conditions. Sub-criticality must be maintained in the storage configuration and conservative computer simulations are used as the primary basis for loading the storage casks. Methodologies are now being developed to reduce the amount of modeling and computation in order to make conservative assessments of how densely fuel can be packed. The SCALE/TRITON (Standardized Computer Analyses for Licensing Evaluation / Transport Rigor Implemented with Time-dependent Operation for Neutronic Depletion) code system has been used to simulate boiling water reactor (BWR) operating conditions in order to investigate nuclide densities in UNF and how the use of control rod blades affect nuclide densities found in UNF. Rodded and unrodded operating cases for a fuel assembly have been used as bounding cases and are used as reference solutions in a piecewise data approximation methodology (PDA method). A variety of control blade insertion patterns have been used with the PDA method and simulated in TRITON in order to observe trends in nuclide densities with varying control blade use. The PDA method is compared with TRITON simulated data in order to evaluate the validity and accuracy of the PDA method. The PDA method gives very accurate results for fissile nuclides but is insufficient in treating densities as a function of burnup for fission products and fertile nuclides. Predicting nuclide densities from temporally balanced control blade insertion and withdrawal patterns is also a strength of the PDA method. The PDA method, however, is not capable of properly accounting for neutron spectral shifts and the behavior in nuclide densities brought about by the spectral shift or nuclide density saturation. Observing the causes for the shortcomings in the PDA method, a more robust methodology can be developed.