Pool boiling enhancement with submerged liquid jet impingement on a laser-engineered microchannel surface

Žalec, Domen (author), Hadžić, Armin (author), Zupančič, Matevž (author), Može, Matic (author), Golobič, Iztok (author)

Effective thermal management of high-power electronics requires cooling solutions capable of dissipating high heat fluxes while maintaining low surface temperatures. This study investigates the pool boiling performance of two surfaces: a reference surface and a laser-textured microchannel surface, both tested with and without submerged liquid jet impingement. Experiments were conducted using saturated, twice-distilled water at atmospheric pressure, with three different mass fluxes delivered by a jet impingement device. Results show that incorporating microtubes into the microchannels to deliver direct jet impingement reduces surface superheat, particularly at higher heat fluxes. The positioning of the jet impingement device plays a key role in critical heat flux (CHF) performance. Devices embedded within the microchannels at the bottom surface yield a higher CHF enhancement with increasing mass flux compared to those positioned just above the surface. For the reference surface, CHF increases significantly with higher mass flux, while the laser-textured surface shows relatively constant CHF values. At mass fluxes of 0.64 and 3.22 kg·m▫$^{−2}$▫·s▫$^{−1}$▫, both surfaces exhibit similar CHF, but at the highest mass flux, the reference surface outperforms the laser-textured one by 20 %. The highest recorded CHF of 9098 kW·m▫$^{−2}$▫ was achieved on the reference surface. The reduced performance of the laser-textured surface is attributed to the formation of an oxidation layer, which acts as a thermal barrier, lowering heat transfer efficiency and contributing to localized dry-out. This ultimately decreases both the CHF and the heat transfer coefficient.

• Language: English
• Keywords: pool boiling, critical heat flux, jet impingement, mass flux, surface engineering, heat transfer enhancement
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 11 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 68, art. 104318
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-175852
• UDC: 536.2:542.467
• ISSN on article: 2451-9049
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tsep.2025.104318
• COBISS.SI-ID: 256659715
• Publication date in RUL: 11.11.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Thermal science and engineering progress
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 2451-9049
• COBISS.SI-ID: 528293913

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: vrenje v bazenu, kritična gostota toplotnega toka, hlajenje s curkom, gostota masnega toka, površinsko inženirstvo, izboljšanje prenosa toplote

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P2-0223
• Name: Prenos toplote in snovi

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J2-50085
• Name: Raziskave medfaznih pojavov kapljic in mehurčkov na funkcionaliziranih površinah ob uporabi napredne diagnostike za razvoj okoljskih tehnologij prihodnosti in izboljšanega prenosa toplote (DroBFuSE)