Review on Bubble Dynamics in Microchannel Heat Sink

Abstract

Inception of the boiling, in pool or flow boiling, is the formation of the vapour bubble at active nucleation site. The bubble dynamics plays an important role in the boiling process. It is critical as it unfolds many facets especially when channel size is reduced to submicron. The detailed knowledge of the bubble dynamics is helpful in establishing the thermal and hydraulic flow behaviour in microchannel. In this paper, the bubble dynamics which include bubble nucleation at nucleation site, its growth, departure and motion along the flow in a microchannel are discussed in details. Different models are developed for the critical cavity radius are compiled and observed that they show large variation when compare. The bubble growth models are compiled and concluded that a development of more generalized bubble growth model is necessary to account for the inertia controlled and thermal diffusion controlled regions. The bubble at the nucleation site in a microchannel grows under the influence of various forces such as surface tension, inertia, shear, gravitational and evaporation momentum. Parametric variations of these forces are critically studied and reckoned that the slope of these forces seems to be reduced beyond 500 μm. Eventually, possible impact of the various factors such as operating conditions, geometrical parameters, and thermophysical properties of fluid on bubble dynamics in microchannel has been reported.