Parametric Effects of Heater Size, Contact Angle, and Surrounding Vessel Size On Pool Boiling Critical Heat Flux From Horizontal Surfaces

Saturated water at one atmosphere pressure was boiled on horizontal copper discs of diameters 1.0,1.5 and 2.0 cm. respectively. The contact angle was varied from 10 to 80 degrees by controlling thermal oxidation of the discs, while the surrounding vessel size was changed by placing glass tubes of different inner diameters around the discs. Nucleate boiling heat transfer data were obtained up to critical heat flux (CHF), where vapor removal patterns were photographed. Dominant wavelengths at vapor jet interface and vapor jet diameters were measured from the photographs of the well wetted discs. For a well wetted surface, the magnitude of CHF increased when the heater size was reduced from 2.0 to 1.0 cm. Improving the wettability enhanced the CHF substantially, whereas the increased size of the liquid holding vessel had a smaller effect. The highest measured CHF is 233 W/cm2 or 2.11 times Zuber's CHF prediction for infinite horizontal flat plates. It was obtained on a 1.0 cm. disc of contact angle about 10 degrees surrounded by a large vessel. The CHF for this surface was increased from 201 to 233 W/cm2 when the ratio of heater size to surrounding vessel size was reduced from 1 to about 0.