A New Method for Estimating Bubble Diameter At Different Gravity Levels for Nucleate Pool Boiling

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandipan Banerjee ◽  
Yongsheng Lian ◽  
Yang Liu ◽  
Mark Sussman

Abstract Nucleate boiling has significant applications in earth gravity( in industrial cooling applications) and micro-gravity conditions (in space exploration, specifically in making space applications more compact). However, the effect of gravity on the growth rate and bubble size is not yet well understood. We perform numerical simulations of nucleate boiling using an adaptive Moment-of-Fluid (MoF) method for a single vapor bubble (water or Perfluoro-n-hexane) in saturated liquid for different gravity levels. Results concerning the growth rate of the bubble, specifically the departure diameter and departure time have been provided. The MoF method has been first validated by comparing results with a theoretical solution of vapor bubble growth in super-heated liquid without any heat-transfer from the wall. Next, bubble growth rate, bubble shape and heat transfer results under earth gravity, reduced gravity and micro-gravity conditions are reported and they are in good agreement with experiments. Finally, a new method is proposed for estimating the bubble diameter at different gravity levels. This method is based on an analysis of empirical data at different gravity values and using power-series curve fitting to obtain a generalized bubble growth curve irrespective of the gravity value. This method is shown to provide a good estimate of the bubble diameter for a specific gravity value and time.

Author(s):  
Lu Zhang ◽  
David M. Christopher

Bubbles have been observed moving along heated wires during subcooled nucleate boiling as they are driven by Marangoni convection around the bubbles. This paper presents more detailed observations of the vapor bubble interactions and moving bubble behavior during subcooled nucleate boiling on a heated microwire. The experimental results show that moving bubbles coalesce or rebound from other bubbles and that bubbles hop on the wire. These observations show how bubble interactions significantly affect nucleate boiling heat transfer rates and how Marangoni flow plays an important role in microscale nucleate boiling heat transfer mechanisms.


Author(s):  
Isaac Perez-Raya ◽  
Satish G. Kandlikar

Effective heat transfer techniques benefit the development of nuclear and fossil fuel powered steam generators, high power electronic devices, and industrial refrigeration systems. Boiling dissipates large heat fluxes while keeping a low and a constant surface temperature. However, studies of the fluid behavior surrounding the bubble and the heat transfer near the contact-line are scare due to difficulties of flow visualization, chaotic conditions, and small length scales. The preset study shows the simulation of bubble growth over a heated surface from conception to departure. The computation of mass transfer with interfacial temperature gradients leads to proper bubble growth rates. Models to include the interface sharpness uncover the dynamic and thermal interaction between the interface and the fluid. Results indicate that the nucleation of a bubble (in water at 1 atm with 6.2 K wall superheat) has an influence region of 2Db (where Db is the departure bubble diameter). In addition, results reveal a thin thermal film near the interface that increases the heat transfer at the contact-line region. Numerical bubble growth rates compare well with experimental data on single bubble nucleation.


1959 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Engelberg-Forster ◽  
R. Greif

Various heat-transfer mechanisms which have been previously proposed are analyzed in the light of recent experiments. Evidence is presented in favor of a vapor-liquid exchange mechanism. The vapor-liquid exchange mechanism is shown to explain the insensitivity of boiling heat flux to the level of subcooling. A “Reynolds’ analogy” for nucleate boiling is presented in some detail. A procedure is given for calculating the superheat at which the liquid bulk velocity ceases to contribute to the heat flux. An expression for the growth of a vapor bubble in a highly superheated liquid is deduced. A method is presented which allows the deduction of correlations for nucleate boiling which give the dependence of heat flux on superheat and system pressure. Two such correlations are presented and results are compared with experiment. It is shown that one correlation yields the heat flux for different liquids varying from water to mercury, without necessitating any change in constant or exponent of the correlation.


Author(s):  
Woorim Lee ◽  
Gihun Son

Bubble growth on a micro-finned surface, which can be used in enhancing boiling heat transfer, is numerically investigated by solving the conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy. The bubble deformation or the liquid-vapor interface is determined by the sharp-interface level-set method, which is modified to include the effect of phase change and to treat the contact angle and the evaporative heat flux from the liquid microlayer on an immersed solid surface of a microfin. The numerical method is applied to clarify bubble growth and heat transfer characteristics on a surface including fin and cavity during nucleate boiling which have not been provided from the previous experimental studies. The effects of single fin, fin-cavity distance, and fin-fin spacing on the bubble dynamics are investigated. The micro-fin is found to affect the activation of cavity. The fin-cavity configuration is found to determine the bubble formation in a cavity. The vapor removal rate is also observed to significantly depend on the fin-fin spacing.


Author(s):  
Abhijit Mukherjee ◽  
Satish G. Kandlikar

The present study is performed to analyze the wall heat transfer mechanisms during growth of a vapor bubble inside a microchannel. The microchannel is of 200 μm square cross section and a vapor bubble begins to grow at one of the walls, with liquid coming in through the channel inlet. The complete Navier-Stokes equations along with continuity and energy equations are solved using the SIMPLER method. The liquid vapor interface is captured using the level set technique. The bubble grows rapidly due to heat transfer from the walls and soon turns into a plug filling the entire channel cross section. The average wall heat transfer at the channel walls is studied for different values of wall superheat and incoming liquid mass flux. The results show that the wall heat transfer increases with wall superheat but is almost unaffected by the liquid flow rate. The bubble growth is found to be the primary mechanism of increasing wall heat transfer as it pushes the liquid against the walls thereby influencing the thermal boundary layer development.


Author(s):  
Tamanna Alam ◽  
Wenming Li ◽  
Fanghao Yang ◽  
Jamil Khan ◽  
Chen Li

Flow boiling in Silicon Nanowire microchannel enhances heat transfer performance, CHF and reduces pressure drop compared to Plainwall microchannel. It is revealed by earlier studies that promoted nucleate boiling, liquid rewetting and enhanced thin film evaporation are the primary reasons behind these significant performance enchantments. Although flow regime plays a significant role to characterize the flow boiling Silicon Nanowire microchannel performances; surface characteristics, hydrodynamic phenomena, bubble contact angle and surface orientation are also some of the major influencing parameters in system performances. More importantly, effect of orientation (effect of gravity) draws a great attention in establishing the viability of flow boiling in microchannels in space applications. In this study, the effects of heating surface orientation in flow boiling Silicon Nanowire microchannels have been investigated to reveal the underlying heat transfer phenomena and also to discover the applicability of this system in space applications. Comparison between Nanowire and Plainwall microchannels have been performed by experimental and visual studies. Experiments were conducted in a forced convection loop with deionized water at mass flux range of 100kg/m2s – 600kg/m2s. Micro devices consist of five parallel straight microchannels with Nanowire and without Nanowire (Plainwall) (200μm × 250μm × 10mm) were used to investigate the effects of orientation. Two different orientations were used to perform the test: upward facing (0° Orientation) and downward facing (180° Orientation). Results for Plainwall show sensitivity to orientation and mass flux, whereas, little effects of mass flux and orientation have been observed for Nanowire configuration.


2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuehu Ma ◽  
Chunjian Yu ◽  
Zhong Lan ◽  
Donghui Wang ◽  
Tao Bai

For narrow space boiling, it is difficult to release bubbles from the narrow space, especially on a large-area surface. To solve this problem, a new structure is designed in the present paper. An experimental study of pool boiling on the novel copper enhanced structure, with the separate ordinary confined spaces and the open channels between them, was conducted with water and ethanol. High-speed visualizations are performed to elucidate the bubble flow. The results show that the boiling performance of both water and ethanol can be enhanced effectively. The visualizations indicated that most active nucleation sites emerged in the confined channels and rarely appeared at the bare surfaces not covered by enhanced structures even at high superheat. The bubble diameter, the bubble departure frequency, and the numbers of nucleation sites are obtained using statistical methods. The results suggest that the magnitudes of bubble diameter of water are almost the same on the smooth and enhanced surfaces. The amount of nucleation sites on the enhanced surfaces is remarkably increased, indicating its key role in the boiling enhancement of water. The bubble departure frequency is increased on one of the enhanced surfaces while not increased on another, showing that it is also a significant factor for heat transfer enhancement under certain conditions. While for ethanol, all the three parameters are increased on the enhanced surfaces.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document