In this paper, effect of nucleation site size on bubble dynamics during nucleate pool boiling heat transfer in saturated water is studied experimentally. Single bubble was generated using right angle tip of a hypodermic needle as a nucleation site. The hypodermic needles were used of inner diameters 0.413mm, 0.514mm, and 0.603 mm with a constant depth of 25mm. The bubble dynamics was studied using SONY Cyber-shot DSC-H100 camera operating at 30 frames per second at atmospheric pressure and at a wall superheat of 5K. The results show that, bubble diameter, bubble height and bubble volume increases with increase in diameter of nucleation site. The bubble growth period is found to be dependent on nucleation site size, and it decreases with increase in diameter of nucleation site. This happens because as volume of vapor bubble increases, buoyancy force starts dominates the capillary force and bubble detaches earlier. Effect of nucleation site size on bubble departure diameter and bubble release frequency is also discussed.
Bubble dynamics and nucleate pool boiling heat transfer on microporous copper surfaces
