Thermal-hydraulic performance of convective boiling jet array impingement

Jet impingement boiling is investigated with regard to heat transfer and pressure drop performance using a novel laser sintered 3D printed jet impingement manifold design. Water was the working fluid at atmospheric pressure with inlet subcooling of 7oC. The convective boiling performance of the impinging jet system was investigated for a flat copper target surface for 2700≤Re≤5400. The results indicate that the heat transfer performance of the impinging jet is independent of Reynolds number for fully developed boiling. Also, the investigation of nozzle to plate spacing shows that low spacing delays the onset of nucleate boiling causing a superheat overshoot that is not observed with larger gaps. However, no sensitivity to the gap spacing was measured once boiling was fully developed. The assessment of the pressure drop performance showed that the design effectively transfers heat with low pumping power requirements. In particular, owing to the insensitivity of the heat transfer to flow rate during fully developed boiling, the coefficient of performance of jet impingement boiling in the fully developed boiling regime deteriorates with increased flow rate due to the increase in pumping power flux.