Numerical simulation and experimental investigation on spray cooling in the non-boiling region

In this study, numerical simulation and experimental investigation were conducted with distilled water as the test liquid to study the spray cooling heat transfer characteristics in the non-boiling region. The Euler-Lagrangian approach was employed to capture the transient behavior of the dispersed phase while the continuous phase is considered in a steady state. The Realizable k-epsilon model was also adopted to account for the turbulence effect during spray cooling process. The effect of droplet diameter on spray cooling heat transfer was investigated. The comparison of wall temperature between simulation result and experimental data demonstrates a favorable accordance with a maximum deviation below 2.5%. The results show that droplet diameter is an important influence factor on spray cooling characteristics in the non-boiling region, especially under low heat flux condition. A smaller droplet size will result in a thicker wall film and a higher heat transfer coefficient under the same heat flux, consequently a lower wall temperature can be obtained.