Applied Thermal Engineering 70 (2014) 100e114

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

An experimental study of flow boiling heat transfer from porous foam

structures in a channel
I. Pranoto, K.C. Leong*
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore

h i g h l i g h t s

“Pocofoam” 61% porosity foam enhanced the cooling performance by up to 2.5 times.

The coolant mass flux had affected significantly the cooling performance.

The evaporator gap had significant effect on the flow boiling heat transfer.

Flow boiling heat transfer coefficient of 16.5 kW/m2 K was achieved in this study.

“Laminar” and “turbulent” bubble regimes were observed in this study.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents a study of the flow boiling heat transfer and bubble characteristics from porous
Received 18 June 2013 graphite foam structures in a channel. The flow boiling performance and phenomena for different
Accepted 12 April 2014 coolant mass fluxes, evaporator gaps, and foam properties were investigated with a two-phase cooling
Available online 9 May 2014
experimental facility. Two types of graphite foams with different thermophysical properties viz. “Poco-
foam” of 61% porosity and “Kfoam” of 72% porosity were used as the enhanced evaporator structure and
Keywords:
tested with the dielectric liquid FC-72. Evaporator gaps of 6, 4, and 2 mm were tested with coolant mass
Two-phase cooling
fluxes of 50, 100, and 150 kg/m2 s. The experimental results show that the evaporator gap, coolant mass
Graphite foam
Evaporator gaps
flux, and foam properties have effects on the flow boiling characteristics and performance. It was found
Flow boiling heat transfer that the use of “Pocofoam” of 61% porosity and “Kfoam” of 72% porosity had enhanced the boiling heat
Flow boiling in a channel transfer coefficients by up to 2.5 and 1.9 times, respectively as compared to those of a smooth surface.
Bubble dynamics The results also show that the boiling performance increases with the increase of coolant mass flux and
the evaporator gap. “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity exhibits better boiling performance than
“Kfoam” graphite foam of 72% porosity for all tested cases. From this study, a maximum local flow boiling
heat transfer coefficient of 16.5 kW/m2 K was achieved with “Pocofoam” of 61% porosity at 6 mm gap and
the mass flux of 150 kg/m2 s. Flow boiling images were recorded to study the flow boiling phenomena
and the bubble growth mechanism. “Laminar” and “turbulent” bubble regimes were observed from these
images and larger “mushroom cloud” bubbles and a vapor film layer were identified at a heat flux of
83.3 W/cm2.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
An effective cooling system for electronic devices must be able
to remove high heat fluxes from compact surfaces and maintain the
devices at the desired low temperature. The development of cool-
ing technologies for electronic devices had therefore evolved from
natural convection and single-phase forced convection to phase
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ65 6790 5596; fax: þ65 6792 4062.
E-mail address: mkcleong@ntu.edu.sg (K.C. Leong).
change cooling systems using pool and flow boiling. Many research
efforts on the enhancement of boiling performance have focused on
increasing the boiling effective surface area [1e3]. Pool boiling
systems based on the thermosyphon are only applicable for sta-
tionary systems where the evaporator is always below the
condenser. To overcome this limitation, the liquid from the
condenser has to be pumped to the evaporator. Hence, flow boiling
cooling systems have been developed for the removal of high heat
fluxes.
Many researchers have studied the use of pumped two-phase
cooling for various applications. Rainey et al. [4] studied flow

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2014.04.027
1359-4311/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 I. Pranoto, K.C. Leong / Applied Thermal Engineering 70 (2014) 100e114
Nomenclature
Aff free flow area of the channel (m2)
Ah base area of heater (m2)
cp specific heat (kJ/kg K)
d evaporator gap (mm)
dp pore diameter (m)
F dynamic factor of single-phase convection
fd bubble departure frequency (Hz)
G coolant mass flux (kg/m2 s)
hfc single phase convection heat transfer coefficient (kW/
m2 K)
HF graphite foam height (mm)
hfb flow boiling heat transfer coefficient (kW/m2 K)
hfb(avg) average value of flow boiling heat transfer coefficients
(kW/m2 K)
hlv latent heat of vaporization of the coolant (kJ/kg)
hnb nucleate boiling heat transfer coefficient (kW/m2 K)
I current (A)
k thermal conductivity (W/m K)
M number of frames during the waiting time
N number of frames during the departure time
Psat saturation pressure (Pa)
q heating power (W)
q00 heat flux (W/cm2)
S dynamic factor of nucleate boiling
td bubble departure time (s)
boiling from microporous coated surfaces in sub-cooled FC-72.
Their experimental results showed that microporous surfaces
outperformed plain surfaces and enhanced the Critical Heat Flux
(CHF). Muwanga and Hassan [5] studied flow boiling heat transfer
of FC-72 in a microtube by liquid crystal thermography. They
observed the effect of mass and heat fluxes on the heat transfer
coefficient. Their results showed that the heat transfer coefficient
was influenced slightly by heat flux at a lower mass flux (770 kg/
m2 s) and was less dependent on heat flux at a higher mass flux
(1040 kg/m2 s). They also observed that the wall temperature
oscillated for a wide range under two-phase conditions with
amplitude of 1e7  C for low heat flux and frequency of about 10 Hz.
Wang et al. [6] experimentally investigated micro capillary
pumped loop (CPL) cooling for high power devices with water as
the working fluid. They found that the groove-enhanced surface
design improved the thermal performance of the cooling system.
They suggested that the micro CPL system must be used at low
pressures and that automatic circulation had to be maintained for
preheating to ensure the equilibrium of transmission without an
additional power supply. In addition, the system started up suc-
cessfully and depriming did not occur until the heat flux had
reached 185.2 W/cm2. A MEMS-based integrated capillary pumped
loop (CPL) cooling module was developed by Jung et al. [7]. The
module consisted of an evaporator and condenser with cone-
shaped capillary structure insertions. Their experimental results
showed that the module possessed good transient characteristics.
They stated that the CPL can handle a heat flux of 6.22 W/cm2 and
an allowable evaporator surface temperature of up to 110  C with
FC-72 as the coolant. Further investigations on pumped two-phase
cooling were carried out by Agostini et al. [8]. They developed a
pumped two-phase cooling system with a silicon multi-
microchannel heat sink using refrigerant R236fa as the working
fluid. They stated that the system had successfully removed heat
101
Tl liquid temperature ( C)

Tsat saturation temperature ( C)

Tw wall temperature ( C)
tw bubble waiting time (s)
V voltage (V)
DTWðdx d1 Þ average wall temperature difference between the
porous channels with various evaporator gaps to that

at d1 ( C)
DTWðG1 Gx Þ average wall temperature difference between G1 and
various coolant mass fluxes ( C)
hfbGx =hfbG1 ratio of hfb(avg) values of the porous channel with
various mass fluxes to that at G1
hfbd1 =hfbdx ratio of hfb(avg) values of the porous channel at d1 to
that evaporator gaps of d2 and d3
Greek symbols
b total internal-surface-area-to-volume ratio (m2/m3)
ε porosity, relative heat loss
r graphite foam density (kg/m3)
s surface tension (mN/m)
Subscripts
e channel exit
f liquid phase
GF graphite foam
v vapor phase
i channel inlet
fluxes up to 255 W/cm2 and maintained the base chip temperature
below 52  C. They also reported that the flow boiling heat transfer
coefficient increased with heat flux, decreased with mass velocity,
and decreased slightly with vapor quality.
Currently, porous media are increasingly being used as
enhanced boiling surfaces. Porous foams with large surface-area-
to-volume ratio, low density, and high bulk thermal conductivity
can be used as boiling evaporators for high heat flux device sys-
tems. Many studies have been conducted to apply porous media to
enhance the performance of thermal management on the elec-
tronic devices [9e14]. Many research investigations on the appli-
cation of porous material in two-phase flow cooling systems have
been conducted over the years. Zhao et al. [15] investigated flow
boiling heat transfer in horizontal metal-foam filled tubes with
R134a as the working fluid. Their experimental results showed that
the heat transfer coefficient was almost doubled by reducing the
cell size from 20 to 40 pores per inch (PPI) for a given porosity. They
also stated that the boiling heat transfer coefficient kept increasing
steadily, albeit slowly, by increasing the vapor quality for high mass
fluxes, while the same trend was not observed for low mass fluxes.
They obtained heat transfer coefficients of copper foam tubes
which were approximately three times higher than that of plain
tubes. An experimental study on the flow boiling heat transfer
performance of FC-72 on silicon chips was conducted by Ma et al.
[16]. They fabricated micro-pin-fins on the chip surface by using a
dry etching technique to enhance the boiling heat transfer.
Different fluid velocities, liquid subcooling and chip configuration
were investigated in their study. They found that all the micro-pin-
finned surfaces showed considerable heat transfer enhancement
and increased CHF compared to the smooth surface. They also
stated that the CHF values for all surfaces increased with fluid ve-
locity and subcooling. In their study, the maximum CHF value of
nearly 150 W/cm2 was reached for chip PF30-120 at the fluid
102 I. Pranoto, K.C. Leong / Applied Thermal Engineering 70 (2014) 100e114

velocity of 2 m/s and liquid subcooling of 35 K. Kim et al. [17]

studied the flow boiling characteristics of three porous copper
foams viz. 95% porosity and 10 PPI, 95% porosity and 20 PPI, and 92%
porosity and 20 PPI, which were soldered to a heated wall of a
10 mm wide  37 mm long  7 mm high channel. Their experi-
mental results showed that the high porosity and large pore size
foam, i.e., the 95%, 10 PPI copper foam, gave the best result,
achieving a heat transfer coefficient of 10 kW/m2 K. They stated that
the results for water were in good agreement with the available
sparse porous matrix correlations, using the recommended
dispersion conductivity coefficient of 0.06. Finally, the results of
their study indicated that the porous foam had more influence in
enhancing the convective heat transfer coefficient for FC-72 than
water despite its relatively low dispersion coefficient.
In summary, flow boiling systems provide the advantages of Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the flow boiling experimental facility.
enhanced cooling performance and orientation flexibility
compared to pool boiling systems. It is noted from the above brief
review that porous media enhance the cooling performance and facility and the design of the channel are shown in Figs. 1 and 2,
increase the CHF. However, there are still many aspects and pa- respectively.
rameters pertaining to the mechanism and characteristics of flow The condenser was designed to ensure that the vapor can be
boiling on porous media evaporator that need to be explored, completely condensed to its liquid state before it is circulated to the
especially in highly conductive graphite foams. To the best of the evaporator by the micro-pump. The condenser tubes were made of
authors’ knowledge, the literature in this area is still rather scarce. aluminum which is compatible with most coolants including FC-72.
In this study, a pumped flow boiling cooling system was developed The condenser tubes were fitted with aluminum fins to enhance
by using porous graphite foams as the evaporator insert in the heat transfer with the aluminum-brazed joints thus ensuring that
channels. The effects of the coolant mass flux, evaporator gap, and the system was leak-free. The condenser of dimensions 200
thermophysical properties of the graphite foam on the bubble (Lc)  50 (Wc)  230 (Hc) mm was mounted on a metal base. Two
characteristics and performance were investigated. fans were used to remove heat from the condenser. The speed of
the fans can be controlled to vary the heat removal rate. “Swagelok”
2. Design of experiments stainless steel tubes and fittings were used in the entire closed-loop
system to ensure leak-tightness. The tubing system was designed
2.1. Experimental facility and tested for pressure operational conditions from 1 to 3.5 bar.
Seven “Swagelok” needle valves were installed in the system to
In this study, a pumped two-phase cooling facility was designed conduct pressure and vacuum tests and to charge/discharge the
to remove the heat from a heat simulator of dimensions 80 mm coolant.
long  60 mm wide. The designed facility consists of six main parts:
flow boiling channel (test section), heat simulator, air-cooled
2.2. Evaporator inserts
condenser, micro-pump, and tubing system. The heat simulator
consists of eight cartridge heaters which were installed in a copper
To enhance the boiling heat transfer performance of the system,
block to generate up to 5000 W of heat. It was insulated with a
the graphite foam inserts were attached on the bottom of each
Teflon base to reduce the heat loss. The evaporator channel was
channel on the evaporator. Two types of graphite foams viz.
located and clamped tightly on top of the heater. Conductive
“Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity and “Kfoam” graphite
thermal grease, “Omegatherm 201”, was applied to reduce the
foam of 72% porosity developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory,
thermal contact resistance between the heater and evaporator
USA, were used as evaporator inserts. The foam samples were
channel surface. The evaporator channel was made of aluminum
fabricated into block structures with dimensions of
and designed with four channels. Three sets of guide vanes connect
80 mm  60 mm  6 mm by Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM).
the channels and reduce the overall flow resistance. Graphite foam
Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images of internal structure of
inserts were attached on the bottom of channels by conductive
thermal adhesive, “Omegabond 101”. The evaporator cover was
also made of aluminum and clamped tightly to the evaporator
through 18 M4 screws. A square rubber ring was attached to the
interface between the evaporator channel and cover to ensure air-
and liquid-tightness of the system.
The dielectric liquid coolant, FC-72, was pumped to the evapo-
rator channel by a ColeeParmer “Micropump R-73011-18” pump
equipped with a high-precision ColeeParmer gear pump drive
which can be varied from 0 to 5000 rpm and can provide accurate
and pulseless fluid delivery. The chemical resistance of the pump
made it compatible with a wide range of liquids including FC-72.
The pump head was mounted on the motor and an inline filter
was installed before the inlet of the pump to maximize its life span.
The heater boils the phase change coolant inside the evaporator
channel. The resulting liquidevapor mixture flows to the air-cooled
condenser section. The condensed liquid returns to the reservoir
before it is circulated by the pump. The schematic diagram of the Fig. 2. Flow boiling channel (test section).
 I. Pranoto, K.C. Leong / Applied Thermal Engineering 70 (2014) 100e114
Fig. 3. SEM images of (a) “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity and (b) “Kfoam” graphite foam of 72% porosity.
the foams and the foams dimensions are shown in Fig. 3. Selected
properties of the graphite foams are shown in Table 1. In all the
experiments, there will always be a gap in the channel. It is
important to note that with “Pocofoam” graphite foams of 61%
porosity and “Kfoam” of 72% porosity, the coolant flows predomi-
nantly through the evaporator gaps and any flow through the
foams is considered to be negligible.
2.3. Phase change coolant
In two-phase cooling systems, the choice of the phase change
coolant plays an important role in heat transfer performance. In
particular, the thermophysical properties of the coolant directly
influence the heat transfer coefficient of the system. In cooling
systems used for electronic devices, the coolant has to be chemi-
cally compatible with the components and possess large dielectric
strength to prevent electrical connections. FC-72 was selected as
the phase change coolant used in the experiments. The liquid is
manufactured by 3M Ltd. and is widely used for electronic cooling
applications. Selected thermophysical properties of FC-72 at 25  C
and 1 atm are shown in Table 2.
2.4. Data reduction and uncertainty analysis
Temperatures, pressures, coolant flow rates, and heating powers
were measured in the experiments. The electrical power can be
adjusted by a power controller and displayed by a power meter. A
total of 15 type K thermocouples were used in the system to
measure various temperatures. Eight flat thermocouples were
inserted at the interface between the evaporator and heater surface
to measure the average evaporator surface temperature. Two
thermocouples were inserted in the copper block to measure the
temperature of the heater and another two thermocouples were
screwed to the evaporator cover to measure the liquid temperature.
Three thermocouples were attached in the tubing system to mea-
sure the coolant temperatures at the reservoir, at the location
Table 1
Selected thermophysical properties of graphite foams [18].
Properties “Pocofoam” 61%
Average pore diameter, dp (mm) 0.35
Porosity, ε (%) 61
Bulk thermal conductivity 245
(out of plane), kGF (W/m K)
Density, rGF (kg/m3) 900
103
before the evaporator inlet, and at the evaporator outlet. Due to the
difficulty of securing the thermocouples within the graphite foam,
temperatures within the foam were not measured. Two “Omega”
PX409 pressure transducers were installed on the evaporator cover
to measure the pressure inside the evaporator channel. The system
volumetric flow rate was obtained by a “Digmesa” flow meter
installed between the micro pump outlet and the evaporator inlet.
All the sensors were carefully calibrated before the commencement
of the experiments. The digital signals from the sensors were
channeled to the “Yokogawa” (MX100) data acquisition system
attached to a personal computer.
Pressure tests were performed before the start of the experi-
ments to ensure that the system was leak-proof and system reli-
ability. The steady-state condition was considered to be reached
when the difference between two consecutive average heater wall
temperatures was smaller than 0.2  C. The tests showed that 15 min
were required to reach quasi steady state from the initial condition,
and 5 min for the system to reach the next steady state after
increasing the power input. The heat flux was increased gradually
from 4.2 to 83.3 W/cm2 in increments of 4.2 W/cm2. Systematic
uncertainty can be minimized by careful experimentation. To
minimize data reduction uncertainty, the time-averaging method
was employed. The time-averaged value is defined as the average
value of a parameter measured for a prescribed duration (1 min
with a sampling rate of 200 ms) under quasi-steady-state condi-
tion. The uncertainty of the thermocouple measurements is 0.5  C
while the uncertainties of the pressure transducer, power meter,
and flow meter measurements are within 0.25%, 0.3%, and
0.5% of their full-scales, respectively.
In this study, the uncertainty of hfb was determined by the
method of Taylor [20]. The measured quantities are assumed to be
independent and random and to follow normal distributions. In the
experiments, q00 , Tw, and Tsat are functions of hfb and their un-
certainties can be calculated from
Table 2
Selected properties of FC-72 [19].
Properties Value
Boiling point [ C] 56
“Kfoam” 72%
Vapor pressure [kPa] 30.9
0.65 Liquid density, rl [kg/m3] 1680
72 Latent heat of vaporization, hlv [kJ/kg] 88
110 Thermal conductivity, kl [W/m K)] 0.057
Surface tension, s [mN/m] 10
480 Dielectric strength [kV] 38
104 I. Pranoto, K.C. Leong / Applied Thermal Engineering 70 (2014) 100e114
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2     Table 3
dhb dq00 dTW 2 dTsat 2
¼ þ þ (1) Experimental parameters.
jhb j q00 TW Tsat
Parameters Value
By using the above method, the average uncertainties of q00 , Tw, Evaporator gap (d) d1 6 mm
and Tsat were calculated to be 3.3%, 1.5%, and 1.8%, respectively. The d2 4 mm
average uncertainty of hfb was estimated to be 4% from Eq. (1). d3 2 mm
The heat loss (qL) of the test section was evaluated before the Coolant mass flux (G) G1 50 kg/m2 s
G2 100 kg/m2 s
commencement of the boiling experiments. qL was calculated from G3 150 kg/m2 s
the difference between the total power input (qt) to the cartridges Graphite foam type “Pocofoam” 61% porosity
heaters and the heat transfer rate to the single-phase liquid of the “Kfoam” 72% porosity
coolant through the channel (qC). With qt ¼ VI and
qC ¼ GAffcp,f(Tf,e  Tf,i), the relative heat loss (ε) was calculated by
 
qt  GAff cp;f Tf;e  Tf ;i coefficient. Many researchers have proposed various correlations to
ε ¼ (2) determine the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient. As proposed by
qt Chen [21], the local flow boiling heat transfer coefficient can be
By using Eq. (2), the average value of ε was estimated to be about expressed as the superposition of forced convection and nucleate
7.5%. Tf,e and Tf,i in Eq. (2) are the liquid temperatures at the exit and boiling heat transfer coefficients. A generalized hfb for both vertical
inlet of the channel, respectively. and horizontal tubes was also proposed by Kandlikar [22] and
Kandlikar and Balasubramanian [23]. In the current experiments,
the heating powers were varied from 4.2 to 83.3 W/cm2 at intervals
2.5. Experimental parameters
of 4.2 W/cm2. It was found that boiling incipience occurred for a
heat flux of 20.8 W/cm2. Therefore, it can be concluded that
In order to investigate the cooling performance of the pumped
nucleate boiling heat transfer had dominated the heat transfer
two-phase cooling system, three parameters, viz. coolant mass flux
process and thus, the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient can be
(G), evaporator gap (d), and foam properties (i.e. porosity and pore
determined from
diameter) were considered. In the experiments, different mass
fluxes were obtained by adjusting the speed of the micro pump q00
according to the respective free flow area of the channel (Aff). The hfb ¼ (4)
ðTw  Tsat Þ
evaporator gap is defined as the distance from the top of the porous
insert to the evaporator top surface as illustrated in Fig. 4. Evapo-
q
rator gaps of 2 mm, 4 mm, and 6 mm were investigated in this q00 ¼ (5)
study. The evaporator gaps were adjusted by changing the interface
Ah
material attached on the top cover of the channel. Different thick- In this study, the saturation temperatures Tsat of FC-72 were
nesses of the interface material were used to obtain the designated calculated at their corresponding saturated pressures Psat measured
evaporator gaps. In the study, experiments on the aluminum by the pressure transducer and from the equation given by the
smooth surface (i.e. evaporator channel without any graphite foam manufacturer [19] as
insert) were performed as a base case to evaluate the heat transfer
enhancement of the porous channel (i.e. evaporator channel with 1562
Tsat ðKÞ ¼ (6)
the graphite foam inserts). The parameters tested in the experi- ½9:729  log10 ðPsat Þ
ments are summarized in Table 3. The wall temperatures Tw were
The average values of the flow boiling heat transfer coefficients
determined by eight thermocouples placed at different locations on
hfb(avg) were calculated to evaluate the boiling performance for
the heater surface and the average wall temperature was calculated
different coolant mass fluxes, evaporator gaps, and graphite foam
as
properties.
Tw1 þ Tw2 þ Tw3 þ Tw4 þ Tw5 þ Tw6 þ Tw7 þ Tw8
Tw ¼ (3)
8 3.1. Effects of coolant mass flux
The arrangement of the wall thermocouples on the evaporator is
Wall temperature readings and boiling curves derived from the
shown in Fig. 5.
experiments on “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity and
“Kfoam” graphite foam of 72% porosity for various mass fluxes of
3. Results and discussion

The cooling performances of the pumped two-phase cooling

system were analyzed based on the flow boiling heat transfer

Fig. 5. Schematic of the heat simulator and wall temperature thermocouple

Fig. 4. Schematic of the test section and the evaporator gap. arrangements.
 I. Pranoto, K.C. Leong / Applied Thermal Engineering 70 (2014) 100e114
50, 100, and 150 kg/m2 s with evaporator gaps of 6 and 4 mm are
presented in Figs. 6 and 7. As defined in Eq. (4), the flow boiling
heat transfer coefficient hfb is inversely proportional to the su-
perheat Tw  Tsat. For constant heating flux q00 , a lower superheat
corresponds to a higher hfb. The single-phase convection heat
transfer data are not shown in the boiling curves for purpose of
clarity. The experimental results show that the coolant mass flux
affects the wall temperatures and flow boiling heat transfer co-
efficients for a given gap size. The results show that regardless of
the evaporator gap and the graphite foam used, the highest
coolant mass flux resulted in the lowest wall temperature and the
smallest wall superheat at all tested heat fluxes. The higher the
mass flux, the better is the flow boiling heat transfer performance.
The average wall temperature differences DTWðG1 Gx Þ between G1
and various coolant mass fluxes; and the ratio of hfb(avg) values of
the porous channels with various mass fluxes to that at G1 defined
as hfbGx ðavgÞ =hfbG1 ðavgÞ are presented in Table 4. Gx refers to the
coolant mass fluxes which were varied from G2 to G3. It is shown
that by increasing the mass flux from 50 kg/m2 s to 100 and
150 kg/m2 s the average wall temperatures were reduced by up to
4.3  C and 9.6  C, respectively. The results also show that en-
hancements of hfb(avg) by up to 12% and 34% were obtained by
increasing the coolant mass fluxes from 50 kg/m2 s to 100 and
150 kg/m2 s, respectively.
The boiling curves in Fig. 6(c) and (d) for “Pocofoam” foam of
61% porosity and Fig. 7(c) and (d) for “Kfoam” foam of 72% show
that the coolant mass flux affects significantly the flow boiling heat
transfer performance. The results show that at a given heat flux, the
higher coolant mass fluxes had resulted in lower wall superheats
for all evaporator gaps and heat fluxes. The values of hfb(avg) for
coolant mass fluxes of 50, 100, and 150 kg/m2 s with “Pocofoam”
foam of 61% porosity and “Kfoam” of 72% porosity at d ¼ 6 mm and
d ¼ 4 mm are presented in Table 4. The results also show that the
enhancements of hfb(avg) due to the increase of the mass flux with
d ¼ 6 mm and d ¼ 4 mm are not significantly different which
suggests that the flow boiling enhancement mechanisms for both
tested gaps might be the same.
Fig. 6. Wall temperature readings of different coolant mass fluxes at (a) d ¼ 6 mm and (b) d ¼ 4 mm; and (c) boiling curves of different mass fluxes at d ¼ 6 mm and (d) d ¼ 4 mm
with “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity.
105
In flow boiling systems, the mechanism of heat transfer is a
combination of forced convection and nucleate boiling. In this
study, the graphite foam is fully immersed in the coolant with the
possibility of the liquid filling all the voids in the pore structure. The
heat from the heater will be conducted through the heater wall and
porous inserts resulting in boiling of the liquid inside the pores.
Subsequently, the supplied fresh coolant refills the pores and
evaporating bubbles will be continuously generated. The coolant
flows through the evaporator gaps enhancing the heat removal by
forced convection and sweeping away the generated bubbles from
the top surface of graphite foams. Therefore, higher coolant mass
fluxes will increase the liquid replacement rate to the pores and
increase the forced convection capacity resulting in an increase in
the bubble departure frequency. The flow boiling mechanism for
different coolant mass fluxes will be discussed in greater detail in
Section 3.4.
3.2. Effect of evaporator gap
The effects of evaporator gap were investigated for “Pocofoam”
graphite foam of 61% porosity and “Kfoam” graphite foam of 72%
porosity with mass fluxes of 100 and 150 kg/m2 s. Wall temperature
readings and boiling curves for different gaps tested with different
graphite foam types and coolant mass fluxes are shown in Figs. 8
and 9. As expected, the experimental results show that the evap-
orator gap affects the wall temperatures and flow boiling heat
transfer coefficient. The results show that subsequent decreases of
the evaporator gap from 6 mm to 4 and 2 mm result in lower flow
boiling performance. As shown in Figs. 8(a, b) and 9(a, b), the
evaporator gaps affect the wall temperatures at a given mass flux.
The results show that the wall temperatures had increased grad-
ually when the evaporator gap was decreased from d ¼ 6 mm to 4
and 2 mm. The average wall temperature differences for various
evaporator gaps DTWðdx d1 Þ at G ¼ 100 kg/m2 s and G ¼ 150 kg/m2 s
for “Pocofoam” foam of 61% porosity and “Kfoam” of 72% porosity
are presented in Table 5, respectively where dx refers to the evap-
orator gaps of d2 and d3. It is shown that by decreasing the gap from
106 I. Pranoto, K.C. Leong / Applied Thermal Engineering 70 (2014) 100e114
Fig. 7. Wall temperature readings of different coolant mass fluxes at (a) d ¼ 6 mm and (b) d ¼ 4 mm; and (c) boiling curves of different mass fluxes at d ¼ 6 mm and (d) d ¼ 4 mm
with “Kfoam” graphite foam of 72% porosity.
6 mm to 4 and 2 mm, the average wall temperatures were increased
by about 3.4e3.9  C and 5.3e7.5  C, respectively. To evaluate the
boiling performance difference, the hfb(avg) ratio of the evaporator
gap of 6 mm to those at 4 and 2 mm hfbd1 =hfbdx are determined,
where x refers to the evaporator gap of d2 and d3. The values of
hfbd1 =hfbdx for various evaporator gaps are presented in Table 5. The
results show that the flow boiling heat transfer coefficients were
reduced by about 5e6% and 20e23% by decreasing the evaporator
gap from 6 mm to 4 and 2 mm, respectively.
The superheats readings for various evaporator gaps on “Poco-
foam” graphite foam of 61% porosity and “Kfoam” graphite foam of
72% porosity are shown in Figs. 8(c, d) and 9(c, d), respectively. It
can be seen that subsequent decreases of the evaporator gap from
6 mm to 4 and 2 mm result in higher superheats. By using Eq. (4),
hfb for various evaporator gaps are further quantified. The hfb(avg)
values of the porous channel with “Pocofoam” of 61% porosity and
“Kfoam” of 72% porosity with G ¼ 100 and 150 kg/m2 s can be found
in Table 4. It is noted that the highest flow boiling heat transfer
coefficient of 16.5 kW/m2 K was achieved by using “Pocofoam”
graphite foam of 61% porosity with the evaporator gap of 6 mm and
coolant mass flux of 150 kg/m2 s. It can be seen that the effects of
decreasing the evaporator gap from 6 to 4 mm on the flow boiling
heat transfer coefficients are less significant as compared to the
decrease of the evaporator gap from 6 to 2 mm.
Based on the results, it is found that the evaporator gap has an
important role in the flow boiling mechanism from the graphite
foam structures. In the boiling process, as the heat flux increase, the
generated bubbles will coalesce and form larger bubbles on the
graphite foam surface and in the channel gap. The sizes of the
merged bubbles were found to be much larger than the individual
isolated bubbles generated from the foam structure. At a constant
mass flux, a smaller evaporator gap will tend to cause more bubble
confinement as compared to larger evaporator gaps. The bubble
confinement tends to lead to a decrease in the bubble departure
frequency, vapor layer formation, and thus a decrease in the boiling
performance. The flow boiling mechanism from different evapo-
rator gaps will be further discussed in Section 3.4.
3.3. Effect of graphite foam types
As mentioned in the previous section, two graphite foams of
different porosities and thermal conductivities were tested in
the experiments. The wall temperatures and boiling curves for
“Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity and “Kfoam” of 72%
porosity graphite foams with evaporator gaps of 6 and 4 mm at
G ¼ 150 kg/m2 s are presented in Fig. 10. The experimental re-
sults show that the thermophysical properties of the foams had
significantly affected the flow boiling heat transfer. It can be
seen that the wall temperatures obtained by “Pocofoam”
graphite foam of 61% porosity are lower than those of “Kfoam”
graphite foam of 72% porosity for all tested cases. The average
difference of wall temperatures obtained by “Kfoam” graphite
foam of 72% porosity and “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61%
porosity are found to be 8.0 and 8.4  C for the evaporator gaps of
6 and 4 mm, respectively. The boiling curves show that the use
of “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity result in much
lower superheats compared to “Kfoam” graphite foam of 72%
porosity. By using Eq. (4), the values of hfb(avg) obtained using
“Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity G ¼ 150 kg/m2 s are
16.5 and 15.7 kW/m2 K for the evaporator gaps of 6 and 4 mm,
respectively while for “Kfoam” graphite foam of 72% porosity,
the values of hfb(avg) are found to be 13.1 and 12.5 kW/m2 K,
respectively. It is also found that the hfb(avg) ratio of “Pocofoam”
61% to “Kfoam” 72% porosity graphite foams are 1.26 for both
evaporator gaps of 6 and 4 mm.
As shown in Fig. 10, the wall temperature readings and boiling
curves of the smooth surface are also presented as a basis of
comparison. It can be seen that the use of porous graphite foams
have enhanced significantly the boiling performance of the smooth
surface. The average difference of wall temperatures between the
use of “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity and the smooth
surface are found to be 21.1 and 19.6  C with the evaporator gaps of
6 mm and 4 mm, respectively. On the other hand, the average
difference of wall temperatures obtained by “Kfoam” of 72%
porosity and the smooth surface are about 15.1 and 13.2  C,
 I. Pranoto, K.C. Leong / Applied Thermal Engineering 70 (2014) 100e114 107

Table 4 3.4. Flow boiling mechanism and discussions

Average wall temperature differences and average flow boiling heat transfer coef-
ficient ratio between different coolant mass fluxes.
The flow boiling heat transfer from porous graphite foams with
Graphite foams DTWðG1 Gx Þ ( C) hfb(Gx) (kW/m2 K) hfbðGx Þ =hfbðG1 Þ different coolant mass fluxes and evaporator gaps are discussed in
and gaps Sections 3.1e3.3. As presented in Section 3.1, increases in the mass
“Pocofoam” 61% DTWðG1 G2 Þ 4.3 hfb(G1) 12.5 hfbðG2 Þ =hfbðG1 Þ 1.16 flux from 50 kg/m2 s to 100 and 150 kg/m2 s had increased the flow
d ¼ 6 mm DTWðG1 G3 Þ 9.2 hfb(G2) 14.5 hfbðG3 Þ =hfbðG1 Þ 1.32 boiling performance by 12% and 34%, respectively. The flow boiling
hfb(G3) 16.5
images for different mass fluxes on “Pocofoam” of 61% porosity and
“Pocofoam” 61% DTWðG1 G2 Þ 4.2 hfb(G1) 11.7 hfbðG2 Þ =hfbðG1 Þ 1.12
d ¼ 4 mm DTWðG1 G3 Þ 9.6 hfb(G2) 13.2 hfbðG3 Þ =hfbðG1 Þ 1.34 “Kfoam” of 72% porosity at q00 ¼ 83.3 W/cm2 for evaporator gaps of 6
hfb(G3) 15.7 and 4 mm are shown in Figs. 11 and 12, respectively. They show that
“Kfoam” 72% DTWðG1 G2 Þ 4.1 hfb(G1) 10.8 hfbðG2 Þ =hfbðG1 Þ 1.13 the increase of the coolant mass flux has reduced the number of the
d ¼ 6 mm DTWðG1 G3 Þ 8.6 hfb(G2) 12.1 hfbðG3 Þ =hfbðG1 Þ 1.21
coalesced flowing bubbles on the graphite foam surfaces and
hfb(G3) 13.1
“Kfoam” 72% DTWðG1 G2 Þ 3.6 hfb(G1) 10.2 hfbðG2 Þ =hfbðG1 Þ 1.12
evaporator gaps. It can be seen that there was a significant reduc-
d ¼ 4 mm DTWðG1 G3 Þ 8.7 hfb(G2) 11.4 hfbðG3 Þ =hfbðG1 Þ 1.22 tion in the number of coalesced bubbles when the mass flux was
hfb(G3) 12.4 increased from 50 to 100 kg/m2 s. This observation supports the
experimental results of enhancement of flow boiling heat transfer
due to an increase in the coolant mass flux. The higher coolant mass
respectively. “Pocofoam” of 61% porosity had better flow boiling flux will sweep away the generated and coalesced bubbles more
heat transfer performance compared to “Kfoam” of 72% porosity. It effectively from the graphite foam surfaces and evaporator gap and
is also found that the hfb(avg) ratios of “Pocofoam” graphite foam of increase the liquid replacement rate to the graphite foam pores.
61% porosity to the smooth surface are 2.49 and 2.44 for the Combining these mechanisms with the heat removal enhancement
evaporator gaps of 6 and 4 mm, respectively, while the hfb(avg) ratios by forced convection from the higher coolant mass flux resulted in
of “Kfoam” graphite foam of 72% porosity to the smooth surface are the increase of the bubble departure frequency. It is also shown that
1.98 and 1.93, respectively. there are less significant differences in the bubble phenomena on
As shown in Table 1, “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity the graphite foam for mass fluxes of 100 and 150 kg/m2 s as
possesses higher effective thermal conductivity and lower porosity compared to those of 50 and 100 kg/m2 s. Therefore, further in-
compared to “Kfoam” graphite foam of 72% porosity which has crease of the coolant mass flux beyond 150 kg/m2 s might not
effects on the flow boiling mechanism. The combined effect of produce significant difference in the boiling phenomena. Therefore,
these two properties will determine the bubble departure fre- the selection of the operation coolant mass flux for a flow boiling
quency and the active nucleation site density of the porous graphite cooling system should take into consideration the cooling perfor-
foam. The larger bubble departure frequency and larger nucleation mance, cost efficiency and the system requirements.
site density of the “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity ac- As discussed in Section 3.2, the evaporator gaps have affected
count for its superior flow boiling heat transfer performance as the flow boiling heat transfer coefficient on the graphite foam
compared to “Kfoam” 72% porosity. This will be further discussed in structures. By decreasing the evaporator gap from 6 to 4 mm, the
Section 3.4. flow boiling performance was reduced slightly by 5e6% for all

Fig. 8. Wall temperature readings and boiling curves for different evaporator gaps tested with “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity for (a), (b) G ¼ 100 kg/m2 s; (c), (d)
G ¼ 150 kg/m2 s.
108 I. Pranoto, K.C. Leong / Applied Thermal Engineering 70 (2014) 100e114

Fig. 9. Wall temperature readings and boiling curves for different evaporator gaps tested with “Kfoam” graphite foam of 72% porosity and FC-72 coolant for (a), (b) G ¼ 100 kg/m2 s;
(c), (d) G ¼ 150 kg/m2 s.

tested graphite foams and coolant mass fluxes. Further decrease of performed by Ramaswamy et al. [3]. The continuous bubble coa-
the evaporator gap from 6 to 2 mm resulted in a significant lescence process had led to the formation of larger “mushroom
decrease in the boiling performance by 20e30%. The flow boiling cloud” bubbles and a thin vapor layer on the porous foam surface as
images from the graphite foams for various evaporator gaps with shown in Figs. 15 and 16, respectively.
the coolant mass fluxes of 100 and 150 kg/m2 s are shown in Figs. 13 As discussed in Section 3.3, the porous graphite foams have
and 14, respectively. At the same heat flux and coolant mass flux, significantly enhanced the flow boiling performance of the smooth
much larger coalesced bubbles were formed in the smaller evap- aluminum surface. In flow boiling from the smooth surface, the
orator gaps, especially at d ¼ 2 mm and G ¼ 100 kg/m2 s. The larger nucleation bubbles were generated from the smooth aluminum
coalesced bubbles on the graphite foam surfaces and evaporator surface. It was observed from the experiments that relatively fewer
gaps will result in more bubble confinement and vapor layers bubbles departed from the smooth surface. This is due to the
covering the top foam surface leading to an increase in the graphite relatively fewer active nucleation sites from the smooth aluminum
foam local temperatures. Simultaneously, it will also diminish fresh surface. By attaching the graphite foam inserts, the number of
liquid replacement rate to the graphite foam pore structures and active nucleation sites was increased significantly due to the
decrease the bubble departure frequency. Further decrease of the increased total exposed area to the fluid. The small openings be-
evaporator gap below 2 mm may cause dry-out on the porous tween the pores allow the liquid to fill the entire pore network
foam which will significantly increase the surface temperatures, which in turn leads to a larger number of nucleation bubbles. The
decrease the cooling performance and result in the appearance of significant role of the internal pore structure of the graphite foam
CHF. Therefore, the selection of the evaporator gap in the flow on the enhancement of nucleation sites was discussed in our pre-
boiling system becomes important to achieve maximum cooling vious work [24]. It was also mentioned in Section 3.3 that the use of
performance and system reliability. In this study, the evaporator “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity resulted in significantly
gap of 6 mm gave better flow boiling performance for all tested
cases.
Based on the captured images of boiling process, several bubble Table 5
Average wall temperature differences and average flow boiling heat transfer coef-
regimes can be observed. The first regime is termed as “laminar” in
ficient ratio between different evaporator gaps.
which isolated bubbles were generated intermittently from the
active cavities. This bubble regime was generally observed from the Graphite foams and gaps DTWðdx d1 Þ ( C) hfbd1 =hfbdx
boiling process at low heat flux for all mass flux levels. By “Pocofoam” 61% DTWðd2 d1 Þ 3.4 hfbd1 =hfbd2 1.06
increasing the heat flux, the number of active nucleation sites was G ¼ 100 kg/m2 s DTWðd3 d1 Þ 5.3 hfbd1 =hfbd3 1.20
also increased. The bubble regime at high heat flux is termed as the “Pocofoam” 61% DTWðd2 d1 Þ 3.9 hfbd1 =hfbd2 1.05
“turbulent” regime. In this regime, some bubbles had coalesced G ¼ 150 kg/m2 s DTWðd3 d1 Þ 6.7 hfbd1 =hfbd3 1.21
with their predecessors and formed larger bubbles. When the heat
“Kfoam” 72% DTWðd2 d1 Þ 3.8 hfbd1 =hfbd2 1.06
flux was further increased, more coalesced bubbles in the channel G ¼ 100 kg/m2 s DTWðd3 d1 Þ 7.5 hfbd1 =hfbd3 1.23
were formed. This phenomenon is more obvious in the captured
images of high heat flux with low mass flux. Similar flow boiling “Kfoam” 72% DTWðd2 d1 Þ 4.1 hfbd1 =hfbd2 1.05
G ¼ 150 kg/m2 s DTWðd3 d1 Þ 7.3 hfbd1 =hfbd3 1.20
phenomena and regimes were also found in the visualization study
 I. Pranoto, K.C. Leong / Applied Thermal Engineering 70 (2014) 100e114 109

Fig. 10. Wall temperature readings and boiling curves of different graphite foam types with FC-72 coolant at G ¼ 150 kg/m2 s for (a), (b): d ¼ 6 mm; (c), (d): d ¼ 4 mm.

higher boiling heat transfer coefficients as compared to “Kfoam”
graphite foam of 72% porosity. The superior boiling heat transfer
performance of “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity
compared to “Kfoam” graphite foam of 72% porosity can be
deduced from the properties of the foams. As shown in Table 1,
“Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity possesses higher effec-
tive thermal conductivity compared to “Kfoam” foam of 72%
porosity. In the boiling process, the porous channels with “Poco-
foam” graphite foam of 61% porosity inserts will conduct the heat
more effectively and the saturation temperature of the foam will be
achieved in a shorter time which results in higher bubble departure
frequency.
Based on the physical properties of the foams, the total internal
surface-area-to-volume ratio (b) of the porous graphite foam was
determined using the model proposed by Yu et al. [25]. The
calculated values of b for “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity
and “Kfoam” graphite foam of 72% porosity are about 10,400 and
5900 m2/m3, respectively. On the other hand, the unit cell model of
the graphite foam proposed by Leong and Li [26] yields values of b
for “Pocofoam” of 61% porosity and “Kfoam” of 72% porosity

Fig. 11. Flow boiling images with various coolant mass fluxes at q00 ¼ 83.3 W/cm2 and d ¼ 6 mm for graphite foams (a) “Pocofoam” of 61% porosity and (b) “Kfoam” of 72% porosity.
110 I. Pranoto, K.C. Leong / Applied Thermal Engineering 70 (2014) 100e114

Fig. 12. Flow boiling images with various coolant mass fluxes at q00 ¼ 83.3 W/cm2 and d ¼ 4 mm for graphite foams (a) “Pocofoam” of 61% porosity and (b) “Kfoam” of 72% porosity.

graphite foams that are about 19,500 and 12,500 m2/m3, respec-
tively. The differences in the b values can be attributed to the
different geometric and selected parameters of the graphite foam
unit cell used in the two models which nevertheless show that the
“Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity has a much higher in-
ternal surface-area-to-volume ratio compared to the “Kfoam”
graphite foam of 72% porosity. Therefore, more active nucleation
sites will be generated within the “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61%
porosity resulting in higher flow boiling heat transfer coefficients.
Flow boiling images from “Pocofoam” of 61% and “Kfoam” of 72%
with different evaporator gaps and heat fluxes are shown in Figs. 17
and 18. It can be seen that the number of generated bubbles from
“Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity is much larger than
“Kfoam” graphite foam of 72% porosity for all tested cases. This is in
line with the results of the effect of the foam types and provides the
evidence that “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity gives a
higher nucleation site density compared to “Kfoam” graphite foam
of 72% porosity.
The bubble departure frequency was determined and analyzed
to further explore the different boiling performance from the
graphite foams. To determine the bubble departure frequency, the
bubble growth and departure processes were recorded by using a
high speed camera at 2005 frames per second (fps). The captured
images were analyzed frame by frame to determine the bubble
growth and departure phenomena. The bubble departure fre-
quency calculation method is portrayed in Fig. 19 which shows that

Fig. 13. Flow boiling images with various evaporator gaps at q00 ¼ 83.3 W/cm2 and G ¼ 100 kg/m2 s graphite foams (a) “Pocofoam” of 61% porosity and (b) “Kfoam” of 72% porosity.
 I. Pranoto, K.C. Leong / Applied Thermal Engineering 70 (2014) 100e114 111

Fig. 14. Flow boiling images with various evaporator gaps at q00 ¼ 83.3 W/cm2 and G ¼ 150 kg/m2 s graphite foams (a) “Pocofoam” of 61% porosity and (b) “Kfoam” of 72% porosity.

Fig. 15. Typical “mushroom cloud” of large coalesced bubbles at high heat flux and low mass flux.

a period of bubble growth and departure can be divided into
waiting and bubble departure times. Once these times are deter-
mined, the bubble departure frequency can be calculated by
1 169 and 150 Hz for “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% and “Kfoam”
fd ¼
tw þ td
where tw and td are waiting and departure times, respectively. At
the frame rate of 2005 fps, the number of frames in the waiting and
departure periods are M and N, respectively. Therefore, tw and td
can be calculated as
By using the above method, the average bubble departure fre-
quency of “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity and “Kfoam”
graphite foam of 72% porosity at 45.8 W/cm2 were found to be 163
and 145 Hz, respectively. At 58.3 W/cm2, the average values of fd are
(7)
of 72% porosity, respectively. Therefore, the combination of larger
total internal surface area and higher thermal conductivity of
“Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity gives rise to a higher
active nucleation site density and higher bubble departure fre-
quency and thus, better boiling heat transfer performance.

tw ¼ ðM frames=2005 fpsÞ (8) 4. Conclusion

td ¼ ðN frames=2005 fpsÞ (9) In this study, the effects of coolant mass flux, evaporator gap,
and graphite foam properties were investigated. The flow boiling
heat transfer enhancements of two different graphite foams were
evaluated and compared with the boiling performance of the
smooth surface. A visualization study was performed to understand
the flow boiling phenomena and bubble characteristics. The
following conclusions can be drawn:-

1) The coolant mass flux has affected significantly the flow boiling
cooling performance. The experimental results show that the
increase of mass fluxes from 50 kg/m2 s to 100 and 150 kg/m2 s
have increased the boiling heat transfer coefficients up to 12%
Fig. 16. Typical thin vapor film formed in channel at low mass flux and high heat flux. and 34%, respectively. Higher coolant mass fluxes are able to
112 I. Pranoto, K.C. Leong / Applied Thermal Engineering 70 (2014) 100e114

Fig. 17. Flow boiling images with different graphite foam types with G ¼ 150 kg/m2 s at q00 ¼ 58.3 W/cm2 for (a) d ¼ 6 mm and (b) d ¼ 4 mm.

sweep away the generated and flowing bubbles effectively and
increase the liquid replacement rate to the pore structures. In
addition, the larger forced convection heat transfer from the
higher coolant mass flux resulted in the increase of the bubble
departure frequency.
2) The experimental results show that the evaporator gap had
affected the flow boiling performance. It was found that the flow
boiling heat transfer coefficients were reduced by about 5e6%
and 20e23% by decreasing the evaporator gap from 6 mm to 4
and 2 mm, respectively. From the study, a smaller evaporator

Fig. 18. Flow boiling images with different graphite foam types with G ¼ 150 kg/m2 s at q00 ¼ 83.3 W/cm2 for (a) d ¼ 6 mm and (b) d ¼ 4 mm.
 I. Pranoto, K.C. Leong / Applied Thermal Engineering 70 (2014) 100e114 113

Fig. 19. Bubble departure frequency determination from the captured images of bubble growth and departure.

gap produces larger coalesced bubbles on the graphite foam
surfaces and evaporator gaps and cause bubble confinement and
vapor layers which cover the top foam surface resulting in
significantly increase of the wall temperatures. In addition, the
fresh liquid replenishment rate to the graphite foam pore
structures will also be diminished which resulted in the
decrease of the bubble departure frequency. It was found that
the highest flow boiling heat transfer coefficient of 16.5 kW/
m2 K was achieved by using “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61%
porosity with the evaporator gap of 6 mm.
114 I. Pranoto, K.C. Leong / Applied Thermal Engineering 70 (2014) 100e114
3) With the use of “Pocofoam” graphite foam of 61% porosity and
“Kfoam” graphite foam of 72% porosity, the flow boiling heat
transfer coefficients were increased significantly by up to 2.5
and 1.9 times, respectively as compared to those of the smooth
surface. In addition, the wall temperatures were reduced by
19.6e21.1  C with the use of the porous graphite foams. The
graphite foam thermophysical properties and its interconnected
pores structures play an important role in the flow boiling en-
hancements. It was also found that the use of “Pocofoam” of 61%
porosity resulted in a heat transfer coefficient which was 1.3
times higher than that of “Kfoam” 72% porosity. The difference
of flow boiling heat transfer performance from the tested
graphite foam types was evaluated by determining the surface-
area-to-volume ratio and the bubble departure frequency. It was
found that the surface-area-to-volume ratio of the “Pocofoam”
61% porosity is about 1.2e1.3 times larger than those of “Kfoam”
72% porosity while the measured bubble departure frequency
from “Pocofoam” of 61% porosity is 1.6e1.7 times higher than
those of “Kfoam” of 72% porosity.
4) The visualization study shows that larger coalesced bubbles and
bubble confinements were observed with the decreases of the
coolant mass flux and evaporator gap. The flow boiling images
also show that larger bubble density was generated by the use of
“Pocofoam” 61% porosity as compared to “Kfoam” 72% porosity.
“Laminar” and “turbulent” flow boiling regimes were observed
in the flow boiling process. Typical “mushroom cloud” bubbles
and vapor film layers were found from the boiling process at
high heat flux and low coolant mass flux which indicated that
the boiling process had approached the onset of CHF.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Mr. Hui
Peng Loy for carrying out some of the experiments and assisting in
the data collection.
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary video related to this article can be found at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2014.04.027.
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