EHD Conduction Pump Designed for Flow Control of Parallel Evaporators

Non-uniform pressure drops and the uneven heat load can easily cause the mal-distribution of the working fluids in the parallel evaporator lines, which further leads to non-optimum thermal performance. The electrically driven flow based on the electrohydrodynamic (EHD) conduction pumping has potential to actively control the two-phase flow distribution among parallel evaporator lines. In this paper, an EHD conduction pump, designed for active flow control of the parallel evaporators, is experimentally investigated in a single-phase liquid refrigerant loop. specifically, the pressure head, the net flow velocity, and the power consumption at different applied potentials are presented. HCFC refrigerant R-123 is used as the working fluid. In the absence of a net flow, the EHD conduction pump with three electrode pairs generated 1270 Pa at 17 kV with HCFC refrigerant R-123 as the working fluid. In the presence of a net flow, the EHD conduction pump generated a pressure head of 425Pa and a velocity of 8.9cm/s at 15kV. The corresponding power consumption was below 1W. The generated pressure head and the corresponding liquid flow can effectively control the flow distribution among parallel evaporator lines.