Influence of angle between the nozzle and skin surface on the heat flux and overall heat extraction during cryogen spray cooling.

High speed video imaging and an inverse heat conduction problem algorithm were used to observe and measure the effect of the angle between the nozzle and surface of a skin phantom on: (a) surface temperature; (b) heat flux q; and (c) overall heat extraction Q during cryogen spray cooling (CSC). A skin phantom containing a fast-response temperature sensor was sprayed with 50 ms cryogen spurts from a commercial nozzle placed 30 mm from the surface. The nozzle was systematically positioned at angles ranging from 5 to 90 degrees (perpendicular) with respect to the phantom surface. It is shown that angles as low as 15 have an insignificant impact on the surface temperature, q and Q. Only exaggerated angles of 5 show up to 10% lower q and 30% lower Q with respect to the maximal values measured when nozzles are aimed perpendicularly. This study proves that the slight angle that many commercial nozzles have does not affect significantly the CSC efficiency.