Effects of saturation temperature on the boiling properties of carbon dioxide in small diameter pipes at low vapour quality: Pressure drop

Abstract The thermal management of most of the silicon pixel detectors at the heart of the Large Hadron Collider experiments at CERN relies on boiling carbon dioxide inside compact heat exchangers of small hydraulic diameter at saturation temperatures between +15 ∘C and −30 ∘C. Due to the current lack of suitable predictive models, a long-term study has been launched to create a consistent and reliable experimental database studying the peculiarities of boiling carbon dioxide in mini- and micro-channels. This study presents results on the total pressure drop of boiling carbon dioxide at low vapour quality (0