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• Effects of vortex generator on subcooled flow boiling are investigated. • Vortex generator accelerates the bubble departure from the heating surface. • The maximum increase of the heat transfer coefficient by vortex generator is 8.4×103 W m-2 K-1. • A new correlation targeting vortex-enhanced subcooled flow boiling is developed. Subcooled flow boiling in a micro-channel is a mainstream heat dissipation way for high-heat-flux electronics. This paper presents a new idea to enhance heat transfer of subcooled flow boiling, i.e. accelerating bubble departure from the heating wall of flow channel by inserting a vortex generator; and the effects of vortex generator positions and working fluid conditions on the heat transfer characteristics are experimentally studied. The shape of the vortex generator is helix with the length, pitch, helix diameter and wire diameter of 22.5 mm, 1.8 mm, 1.8 mm and 0.2 mm, respectively. The vortex generator positions in the experiments include the front, the middle and the end of the flow channel; and the working fluid conditions include the mass fluxes of 1000 – 3500 kg m−2 s−1 and the inlet subcooling degrees of 30–50 K. It is found that the vortex generator could accelerate the bubble departure from the wall, and thus enhance the heat transfer in subcooled flow boiling. The maximum increase of the heat transfer coefficient of the all vortex channel is 8.4 × 103 W m−2 s−1, and the maximum increase rate of critical heat flux (CHF) is 21.8%. Furthermore, a new correlation to predict the heat transfer coefficients of vortex enhanced subcooled flow boiling was developed. The predictions by the new correlation could agree with 92% of the experimental data within a deviation of ± 30%, and the average deviation is 13.7%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]