Synchronized High-Speed Video and Infrared Thermometry Study of Bubble Dynamics During Nucleate Boiling of Nanoemulsion

Author(s):  
Robert Stephenson ◽  
Jiajun Xu

In this study, a combination of synchronized high-speed video (HSV) and infrared (IR) thermography was used to characterize the nucleation, growth and detachment of bubbles generated during nucleate boiling inside the nanoemulsion fluid. The Ethanol/Polyalphaolefin nanoemulsion fluid was formed by dispersing ethanol nanodroplets into base fluid Polyalphaolefin, in which these nanodroplets can serve as the pre-seed boiling nuclei. With this unique combination, it allows controlled nucleation, time-resolved temperature distribution data for the boiling surface and direct visualization of the bubble cycle to track bubble nucleation and growth. Data gathered included measurements of bubble growth versus time, as well as 2D temperature history of the heater surface underneath the bubbles. Our findings demonstrate a significant difference of bubble dynamics between the nanoemulsion fluid and pure ethanol, which may also account for the substantial increase in heat transfer coefficient and critical heat flux of nanoemulsion fluid. It is also observed here that the bubbles occurred inside the nanoemulsion fluid appear to be more uniform and two orders-of-magnitude larger in size. While the growth rate of the bubbles inside pure ethanol was found to be heat diffusion controlled at a coefficient around ½, which however, dropped to be around 0.3 for nanoemulsion fluid. Further study on this unique system will help reveal its heat transfer mechanisms.

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aritra Sur ◽  
Yi Lu ◽  
Carmen Pascente ◽  
Paul Ruchhoeft

Nucleate boiling heat transfer depends on various aspects of the bubble ebullition, such as the bubble nucleation, growth and departure. In this work, a synchronized high-speed optical imaging and infrared (IR) thermography approach was employed to study the ebullition process of a single bubble on a hydrophilic surface. The boiling experiments were conducted at saturated temperature and atmospheric pressure conditions. De-ionized (DI) water was used as the working fluid. The boiling device was made of a 385-um thick silicon wafer. A thin film heater was deposited on one side, and the other side was used as the boiling surface. The onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) occurs at a wall superheat of ΔTsup= 12 °C and an applied heat flux of q" = 35.9 kW/m2. The evolution of the wall heat flux distribution was obtained from the IR temperature measurements, which clearly depicts the existence of the microlayer near the three-phase contact line of the nucleate bubble. The results suggest that, during the bubble growth stage, the evaporation in the microlayer region contributes dominantly to the nucleate boiling heat transfer; however, once the bubble starts to depart from the boiling surface, the microlayer quickly vanishes, and the transient conduction and the microconvection become the prevailing heat transfer mechanisms.


Author(s):  
Jiajun Xu ◽  
James McLaurin ◽  
Cyree Beckett

In this study, an experimental study of the nucleation heat transfer and bubble dynamics inside the Water-in-PAO nanoemulsion fluid has been performed. Synchronized highspeed video and infrared thermography are used here to capture time-resolved temperature distribution data for the boiling surface and direct visualization of the bubble cycle. Data gathered included measurements of bubble growth versus time, as well as temperature history of the heater surface underneath the bubbles. Our findings demonstrate a substantial increase in nucleate heat transfer (i.e., heat transfer coefficient), and significantly different bubble dynamics of nanoemulsion fluid compared to pure water. The bubble growth rate of the nanoemulsion lies in the diffusion-controlled regime, and the growth data fit a power law at n ≈ 0.3. This is similar to the authors’ previous study of a similar fluid and is very different from conventional fluids. While the heat transfer mechanisms behind are not completely understood yet, it is hypothesized that the interfacial structures and thermal transport between surfactant molecules surrounding water nanodroplets and the base PAO fluid at elevated temperature may contribute to that.


Author(s):  
Evan T. Hurlburt ◽  
Helene A. Krenitsky ◽  
Richard C. Bauer

In nucleate boiling as the heat flux from the wall to the fluid is increased the heat transfer coefficient initially increases. At a sufficiently high heat flux called the critical heat flux (CHF) the heat transfer mechanism suddenly becomes less effective resulting in a rapid jump in wall temperature. In bubbly subcooled (or near-subcooled) conditions the CHF mechanism is referred to as departure from nucleate boiling. Departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) refers to the transition from nucleate boiling where liquid contacts the wall to film boiling in which a vapor layer contacts the wall. Various hypotheses have been used in modeling and predicting CHF. High speed video images of boiling water flows taken at Bettis Laboratory at the critical heat flux visually captured sufficient evidence of the DNB mechanism that improved insight into DNB modeling may be possible. This paper summarizes high speed video image analysis and the development of a new DNB critical heat flux model based on the image analysis findings. Using short window averages of image data, a significant increase in transmitted light intensity is seen near the wall just prior to CHF. The increase suggests that at CHF there is a transient reduction in the interfacial area concentration, ai, or bubble number density near the wall. This is believed to be the result of a sudden increase in bubble coalescence rates near the wall. The increase in coalescence rates results in a reduction in the interfacial area concentration causing it to reach a maximum at CHF. This near-wall maximum in ai at CHF under flow boiling conditions is consistent with recent pool boiling data in the literature. The image based observations motivated development of an interfacial area based CHF model to predict the maximum in the interfacial area concentration at CHF. The model predicts that a critical nucleation site density or a near-wall critical void fraction can be used as a DNB CHF criterion. This is a valuable simplification that can be directly implemented in three-dimensional thermal hydraulic codes. The critical nucleation site density result was used as an input to a simple wall heat transfer partition model to predict the critical heat flux. The model relies on correlation based estimates for the superheat temperature, bubble departure diameter, and bubble departure frequency. Model predictions are compared to CHF values taken from Groeneveld’s 2006 CHF look-up table.


Author(s):  
Ankit Kalani ◽  
Satish G. Kandlikar

Flow boiling in microchannels offers many advantages such as high heat transfer coefficient, higher surface area to volume ratio, low coolant inventory, uniform temperature control and compact design. The application of these flow boiling systems has been severely limited due to early critical heat flux (CHF) and flow instability. Recently, a number of studies have focused on variable flow cross-sectional area to augment the thermal performance of microchannels. In a previous work, the open microchannel with manifold (OMM) configuration was experimentally investigated to provide high heat transfer coefficient coupled with high CHF and low pressure drop. In the current work, high speed images of plain surface using tapered manifold are obtained to gain an insight into the nucleating bubble behavior. The mechanism of bubble nucleation, growth and departure are described through high speed images. Formation of dry spots for both tapered and uniform manifold geometry is also discussed.


2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. D. Wang ◽  
G. Lu ◽  
X. F. Peng ◽  
B. X. Wang

A visual study was conducted to investigate the evaporation and nucleate boiling of a water droplet on heated copper, aluminum, or stainless surfaces with temperature ranging from 50°C to 112°C. Using a high-speed video imaging system, the dynamical process of the evaporation of a droplet was recoded to measure the transient variation of its diameter, height, and contact angle. When the contact temperature was lower than the saturation temperature, the evaporation was in film evaporation regime, and the evaporation could be divided into two stages. When the surface temperature was higher than the saturation temperature, the nucleate boiling was observed. The dynamical behavior of nucleation, bubble dynamics droplet were detail observed and discussed. The linear relationships of the average heat flux vs. temperature of the heated surfaces were found to hold for both the film evaporation regime and nucleate boiling regime. The different slopes indicated their heat transfer mechanism was distinct, the heat flux decreased in the nucleate boiling regime more rapidly than in the film evaporation due to the strong interaction between the bubbles.


Author(s):  
Xiaopeng Qu ◽  
Huihe Qiu

The effect of acoustic field on the dynamics of micro thermal bubble is investigated in this paper. The micro thermal bubbles were generated by a micro heater which was fabricated by standard Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) technology and integrated into a mini chamber. The acoustic field formed in the mini chamber was generated by a piezoelectric plate which was adhered on the top side of the chamber’s wall. The dynamics and related heat transfer induced by the micro heater generated vapor bubble with and without the existing of acoustic field were characterized by a high speed photograph system and a micro temperature sensor. Through the experiments, it was found that in two different conditions, the temperature changing induced by the micro heater generated vapor bubble was significantly different. From the analysis of the high speed photograph results, the acoustic force induced micro thermal bubble movements, such as forcibly removing, collapsing and sweeping, were the main effects of acoustic enhanced boiling heat transfer. The experimental results and theoretical analysis were helpful for understanding of the mechanisms of acoustic enhanced boiling heat transfer and development of novel micro cooling devices.


Author(s):  
Bambang Joko Suroto ◽  
Masahiro Tashiro ◽  
Sana Hirabayashi ◽  
Sumitomo Hidaka ◽  
Masamichi Kohno ◽  
...  

The effects of hydrophobic circle spot size and subcooling on local film boiling phenomenon from the copper surface with single PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) hydrophobic circle spot at low heat flux has been investigated. The experiments were performed using pure water as the working fluid and subcooling ranging from 0 and 10K. The heat transfer surfaces are used polished copper block with single PTFE hydrophobic circle spot of diameters 2, 4 and 6 mm, respectively. A high-speed camera was used to capture bubble dynamics and disclosed the sequence of the process leading to local film boiling. The result shows that local films boiling occurs on the PTFE circle spot at low heat flux and was triggered by the merging of neighboring bubbles. The study also showed that transition time required for change from nucleate boiling regime to local film boiling regime depends on the diameter of the hydrophobic circle spot and the subcooling. A stable local film boiling occurs at the smallest diameter of hydrophobic spot. Subcooling cause the local film boiling occur at negative superheat and oscillation of bubble dome.


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.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document