Transactions of the Korean Nuclear Society Spring Meeting

Jeju, Korea, May 11-13, 2016

Inclination Angle Effects of Single Plate PCB Heater on Saturated Pool Boiling
Elvira F. Tanjung and Daeseong Jo
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 702-701, Korea
*
Corresponding author: djo@knu.ac.kr
1. Introduction
Understanding and predicting the complex processes
involved in boiling heat transfer is necessary for the
efficient operation, safety and development of nuclear
reactors. Surface and orientation effects on pool boiling
and critical heat flux (CHF) were investigated by many
researchers since it has a significant effects on boiling
process [1].
Previous investigations indicated that the critical heat
flux (CHF) decreased slowly when the inclination angle
was increased from 0 to 90 [5]. Howard and Mudawar
[1] used copper block to investigate the near vertical
CHF model on pool boiling. They found that at high heat
flux, near vertical pool boiling exhibits vapor production
and vapor flow patterns similar to those found in flow
boiling. Rainey and You investigated the effects of
heater size and orientation on pool boiling heat transfer.
The heat flux decreased with increasing the heater size
and the inclination angle, except at the 45 inclination
angle. The heat flux at 45 inclination angle increased
and had the highest heat flux among the six inclination
angles [3].
The aim of present work is to evaluate the inclination
angle effects and critical heat flux trigger of plate PCB
heater on pool boiling. Furthermore, the pool boiling
phenomena of inclination angles will be captured with
the use of a high speed camera in order to give more
detailed understanding of bubble behaviors.

Fig.1. The overall dimensions of the experimental setup

were 350 mm x 350 mm x 60 mm.
The pyrex windows were held in place by laterally
compressing the assembly with a set of M8 fasteners.
The setup was designed to observe the pool boiling
phenomena and critical heat flux (CHF) of different
inclination angles which are 0, 45, 90 and 135 in
saturated water. A pyrex test cell was filled with deionized water and was heated up to the saturated
temperature by a pre-heater. In addition, the pyrex test
cell was covered by a dense styrofoam in order to
minimize the heat losses to the surroundings. An electric
cartridge heater with diameter of 10 mm was employed
to maintain the bulk temperature at saturation
temperature. A K-type sheathed thermocouple was
placed 40 mm horizontally apart from the edge of the
heater.
The schematic diagram of a single plate PCB heater
and the contact angle of a droplet water on the PCB
heater surface are shown in Fig. 2. The heater in present
study was made of copper with a length of 100 mm, and
a width and thickness of 2 mm and 50 m, respectively.
Whereas the contact angle of a droplet water on the PCB
heater surface was 80. The measurement were taken
using a sessile drop method and compared with previous
studies. Zhang et al. (1984), Ponter et al. (1985) and

2. Experimental Apparatus
An experimental setup to study the inclination angle
effects on pool boiling water is designed and fabricated.
A schematic diagram of experimental design is shown in
Schematic diagram of PCB heater

The contact angle measurement of droplet water on the PCB

heater surface

Fig. 1 The schematic diagram of experimental apparatus

Fig. 2 The schematic diagram of the PCB heater and

the contact angle of droplet water on the PCB heater
surface

Transactions of the Korean Nuclear Society Spring Meeting

Jeju, Korea, May 11-13, 2016

Fig. 3 Typical snapshot of vapor bubbles behavior on pool boiling at increasing heat flux for the single plate PCB heater with
different inclination angle

Exterand et al. (2003) investigated the contact angle of

droplet water on a copper surface were 71, 78 and 69
respectively while Lee (2015) measured 81.05. The
heater surface in the present work shows a hydrophilic
surface with 0 < < 90 which means has a high
wettability [7].
The heater in the present work was supplied by a DC
power SM 15-11 S223 (15V x 100A). A K-type
thermocouple was attached to the PCB heater to measure
the heated surface temperature. Considering the value of
error in calibration, the error in heater surface
measurement was 2%.
The rate of energy transfer through the heater surface
per unit time (heat flux) can be calculated as;
" =

Where V is the inputted voltage (volt), I is the input

current (Amp), and w and L represent the width (mm)
and length (mm) of the copper wire, respectively.
The film coefficient or heat transfer coefficient (h)
can be calculated by using the equation below;
=

"

Here, " is the amount of heat transferred (heat flux)

while is the differences in temperature between the
heated surface and surrounding fluid area.
3. Results and Discussion
In the present work, the effects of inclination

angles of single plate PCB heater on the saturated pool

boiling and CHF were investigated. Fig. 3 illustrated the
typical snapshot of vapor bubbles behavior on pool
boiling with different inclination angle while increasing
the heat flux.
When the PCB heater was placed horizontally at a
very low heat flux, the vapor bubbles were generated and
detached with a flow pattern vertical to the heated
surface. The PCB heater with 0 inclination angle had
the most bulky size of bubbles among the four inclination
angles. The generated vapor bubbles initially merged
before it detached when the heat flux was increased
slowly. Furthermore, at a very high heat flux, the vapor
bubbles covered the heated surface depicting a film
boiling phenomenon before it reached the CHF as
illustrated in Fig. 3.
At 45 inclination angle, the vapor bubbles
demonstrated the same behavior with that 0 inclination
angle. The film boiling occurred at very high heat flux
and lasted until it reached the maximum limit of the
power with the largest size of film among the four
inclination angles.
On the other hand, the 90 and 135 inclination angles
performed a different behavior of the vapor bubbles
compared to that 0 and 45 inclination angles. At a very
low heat flux, the vapor bubbles generated and drifted
along the heated surface before it detached at the
uppermost part of the PCB heater. By increasing the heat
flux, film boiling occurred in a manner wherein the wall
surface cannot contact with the liquid. The consistent
drifting of generated vapor bubbles and films throughout
the heated surface, led to lower CHF.
Fig. 4 shows the measured heat transfer coefficient
with different inclination angles. The heat transfer

Transactions of the Korean Nuclear Society Spring Meeting

Jeju, Korea, May 11-13, 2016

4. Conclusions

Fig. 4 The heat transfer coefficient of single plate PCB

heater with different inclination angle
coefficient of all inclination angles (0, 45, 90 and 135)
exhibited similar trends. As the heat flux increased, the
heat transfer coefficient of the PCB heater for all
different inclination angles also increased. As mentioned
above, at the 90 and 135 inclination angles, the vapor
bubbles generated and drifted along the heater surface
before it detached.
The bubbles sweeping the heated surface was
considered to enhance the convective heat transfer
significantly, and hence a higher heat transfer coefficient
was produced by increasing the inclination angle [3]. As
shown in Fig. 4, the heat transfer coefficients of the four
inclination angles were increased gradually with
increasing the inclination angle.
The results demonstrated a pattern of decreasing CHF
value with increasing inclination angles from 0 to 135
with the exception of the 45 inclination angle, wherein
the heat flux continued to increase until it reached the
maximum limit of the power. At an inclination angle of
45, the critical heat flux was not reached.
The observed result in Fig. 4 differed significantly
from the findings of Howard and Mudawar [1] and ElGenk and Bostanci [5] who reported that the CHF
decreased and the heat transfer increased by increasing
the inclination angle. On the other hand, Rainey and You
[3] has the similar observation with this present study.
The CHF increased at 0 to 45 inclination angle and
decreased at 90 to 135 inclination angle with increasing
heater size [3]. This occurred because of the
enhancement of heat transfer that was caused by the large
mass of bubbles departing at an angle from the heater
surface.
The maximum heat flux that was observed at an
inclination angle of 45 was 1.3 MW/m2 while the critical
heat flux (CHF) for the inclination angle of 0, 90 and
135 were 1.06 MW/m2, 0.70 MW/m2 and 0.69 MW/m2,
respectively.

A series of experiments to investigate the effects of

the inclination angle on saturated water pool boiling and
critical heat flux (CHF) were conducted. Several
conclusions from the present work are as follows;
1. Critical heat flux (CHF) decreased by
increasing the inclination angle from 0 to 135
with exception of 45 inclination angle.
2. The heat flux at the 45 inclination angle
reached the maximum limit of the power which
was 1.3 MW/m2 and did not reached the CHF.
3. The 0 and 45 inclination angles had the same
vapor bubbles behavior, the vapor bubbles were
generated and detached in vertically way of the
heated surface.
4. The heated surface with 90 and 135
inclination angles showed similar behaviors of
vapor bubbles. The generated vapor bubbles
drifting continuously along the heated surface
led to lower CHF.
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