Abstract Microchannel evaporators are capable of removing large heat fluxes by taking advantage of the latent heat of phase-change. However, flow maldistribution in the parallel channels of the evaporator can cause a considerable variation in the cooling performance of each channel. Such variations in performance are undesirable and present a significant challenge to implement this strategy effectively. To address this issue, we analyze the fluid flow and heat transfer taking place in an evaporator consisting of two parallel channels. The computational model presented in this study quantifies the effect of thermal and flow coupling between the channels. The experiments characterize the performance of the evaporators with channels that are either thermally-coupled or thermally-decoupled. Our experiments and model indicate that flow oscillations with sufficient amplitude can aid in synchronizing the temperature across the channels that are thermally-coupled, flow-coupled, or both. Hence, with the simple strategy of allowing controllable flow oscillations, the performance of microchannel evaporators can be improved by mitigating flow maldistribution.

中文翻译：

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流动沸腾期间平行微通道的温度同步

摘要 微通道蒸发器能够利用相变潜热去除大的热通量。然而，蒸发器平行通道中的流量分布不均会导致每个通道的冷却性能发生相当大的变化。这种性能变化是不可取的，并且对有效实施该策略提出了重大挑战。为了解决这个问题，我们分析了在由两个平行通道组成的蒸发器中发生的流体流动和热传递。本研究中提出的计算模型量化了通道之间的热耦合和流动耦合的影响。实验表征了具有热耦合或热解耦通道的蒸发器的性能。我们的实验和模型表明，具有足够幅度的流动振荡有助于同步热耦合、流动耦合或两者兼有的通道中的温度。因此，通过允许可控流动振荡的简单策略，可以通过减轻流动分布不均来提高微通道蒸发器的性能。