On the prediction and optimization of the flow boiling heat transfer in mini and micro channel heat sinks

Abstract

The most common methods for predicting flow boiling heat transfer in mini/micro channels-based heat sinks rely on semi-empirical correlations derived from experimental data. However, these correlations are often limited to specific testing conditions. This study proposes a novel approach using deep learning and genetic algorithms (GA) to predict and optimize refrigerants' flow boiling heat transfer coefficients (FBHTC) in mini/microchannels-based heat sinks. The dataset used in this study includes FBHTC observations from the literature for seven refrigerants (R1234yf, R1234ze, R134A, R513A, R410A, R22, and R32). The optimal input parameters identified include hydraulic diameters ranging from 1 to 7 mm, saturation temperature from 0 to 20 °C, flow qualities from 0.006 to 0.972, heat flux from 3 to 78.8 kW/m², and mass fluxes between 100 and 1200 kg/m²s. Gradient-boost regression trees were employed to develop the deep learning and GA models for accurate estimation and optimization. Correlation analysis and feature engineering selected the most influential parameters to construct a precise and simple model. The results demonstrate that the models could estimate refrigerants' FBHTC with high accuracy, achieving an R² of 0.988 and a mean squared error (MSE) of 0.05%. The GA-based method effectively optimized the FBHTC for each refrigerant by determining the appropriate input parameters, including the saturation temperature, heat and mass fluxes, quality, and hydraulic diameter. Additionally, a parametric analysis using explainable artificial intelligence was conducted to interpret the impact of each input parameter on the FBHTC.