Experimental study of critical heat flux enhancement with hypervapotron structure under natural circulation conditions

The enhancement of critical heat flux with a hypervapotron structure under natural circulation conditions is investigated in this study. Subcooled flow boiling CHF experiments are performed using smooth and hypervapotron surfaces at different inclination angles under natural circulation conditions. The experimental facility, TESEC (Test of External Vessel Surface with Enhanced Cooling), is designed to conduct CHF experiments in a 30 mm by 61 mm rectangular flow channel with a 200 mm long heated surface along the flow direction. The two-phase flow of subcooled flow boiling on both smooth and hypervapotron heating plates is observed and analyzed by the high-speed visualization technology. The results show that both smooth surface and hypervapotron surface CHF data exhibit a similar trend against inclination angles compared with the CHF results under forced flow condition on the same facility in earlier studies. However, the CHF enhancement of the hypervapotron structure is evidently more significant than the one under forced flow conditions. The experiments also indicate that the natural flow rates are higher with hypervapotron structure. The initiation of CHF is analyzed under transient subcooling and flow rate conditions for both smooth and hypervapotron heating surfaces. An explanation is given for the significant enhancement effect caused by the hypervapotron surface under natural circulation conditions. The visualization data are exhibited to demonstrate the behavior of the vapor blanket at various inclination angles and on different surfaces. The geometric data of the vapor blanket are quantified by an image post-processing method. It is found that the thickness of the vapor blanket increases with the increase of the inclination angle. Surface wettability and roughness are measured for both smooth and hypervapotron surfaces before and after the CHF experiments.