Experimental Study of Water Liquid-Vapor Two-Phase Pressure Drop Across an Array of Staggered Micropin-Fins

This study concerns pressure drop of adiabatic water liquid-vapor two-phase flow across an array of 1950 staggered square micropin-fins having a $200×200μm$ cross section by $670μm$ height. The ratios of longitudinal pitch and transverse pitch to pin-fin equivalent diameter are equal to 2. An inline immersion heater upstream of the micropin-fin test module was employed to produce liquid-vapor two-phase mixture, which flowed across the micropin-fin array. The test module was well insulated to maintain adiabatic condition. Four maximum mass velocities of $184kg/m2s$⁠, $235kg/m2s$⁠, $337kg/m2s$⁠, and $391kg/m2s$⁠, and a range of vapor qualities for each maximum mass velocity were tested. Measured pressure drop increases drastically with increasing vapor quality. Nine existing two-phase pressure drop models and correlations were assessed. The Lockhart–Martinelli correlation for laminar liquid-laminar vapor combination in conjunction with a single-phase friction factor correlation proposed for the present micropin-fin array provided the best agreement with the data.