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Nucleate Pool Boiling

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Handbook of Thermal Science and Engineering

Abstract

Nucleate boiling is a very efficient mode of heat transfer. In this chapter, a mechanistic description of nucleate boiling on solid surfaces is presented. The description includes determination of wall superheat necessary for bubbles to nucleate on defects or cavities present on the heater surface; number density of active nucleation sites; bubble dynamics including bubble growth, merger, and departure; bubble growth period, waiting time, and frequency of bubble release; influence of substrate thickness and its thermophysical properties; and various heat transfer mechanisms such as transient conduction into liquid, natural convection, evaporation underneath the bubbles and on vapor-liquid interfaces as well as thermo-capillary convection. Effect of such variables as surface wettability, heater geometry, surface roughness, liquid subcooling, system pressure, and level of gravity on the rate of nucleate boiling heat transfer is described. Correlations available in the literature describing dependence of wall heat flux on wall superheat are also given. Maximum, peak, critical, or burnout heat flux represents the upper limit of nucleate boiling heat flux. Hydrodynamic theory and other approaches for prediction of maximum heat flux are discussed. Effect of various system variables on maximum heat flux including reduced gravity is described.

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Abbreviations

A :

Hamaker constant

B o :

Bond number

b :

Constant

C :

Constant

c p :

Specific heat (J/kg K)

D :

Diameter (mm)

D c :

Cavity diameter (μm)

D d :

Bubble departure diameter (mm)

D s :

Diameter of largest cavity present on the surface (μm)

f 1, f 2 :

__________ of contact angle

f :

Frequency of bubble release (Number/s)

g :

Gravitational acceleration (m/s2)

g e :

Earth normal gravitational acceleration (m/s2)

h :

Heat transfer coefficient (W/m2K)

h fg :

Latent heat of vaporization (J/kg)

Ja :

Jakob number

K :

Nondimensional curvature

k :

Thermal conductivity (W/mK)

m :

Exponent

N a :

Number density of active cavities (Sites/cm2)

N as :

Number density of cavities with mouth angle less than a specified value (Sites/cm2)

N s :

Number density of cavities presents on the surface (Sites/cm2)

Nu :

Nusselt number

n :

Exponent

p :

Pressure (kPa)

Pr :

Prandtl number

p c :

Critical pressure (kPa)

q :

Heat flux (W/m2)

q w :

Wall heat flux (W/m2)

R :

Radius (mm)

R’ :

Dimensionless radius

T :

Temperature (K)

T l :

Liquid temperature (K)

T sat :

Saturation temperature (K)

T w :

Wall temperature (K)

t :

Time (sec)

V * :

Nondimensional volume

y :

Distance normal to the surface (mm)

α :

Thermal diffusivity (m2/s)

β :

Wedge angle

△T:

Temperature difference (K)

δ :

Film thickness (mm)

θ :

Angle of inclination (Degrees)

λ f :

Most dangerous Taylor wavelength (mm)

μ :

Viscosity (Kg/ms)

ν :

Kinetic viscosity (m2/s)

ρ :

Density (Kg/m3)

σ :

Surface tension (N/m)

Φ :

Contact angle (Degrees)

b:

Bubble or bulk

c:

Critical or cavity

e:

Earth

ev:

Evaporative

g:

Growth

in:

Inception

l:

Liquid

max:

Maximum

min:

Minimum

nc:

Natural convection

sat:

Saturation

sub:

Subcooling

v:

Vapor

w:

Wall or waiting

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Vijay K. Dhir

Authors
  1. Vijay K. Dhir
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vijay K. Dhir .

Section Editor information

  1. Armour College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Sumanta Acharya

  2. Gas Technology Institute, Des Plaines, Illinois, USA

    Yaroslav Chudnovsky

  3. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Renato Machado Cotta

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

    Ram Devireddy

  5. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Vijay K. Dhir

  6. Cekmeköy Campus, Özyegin University, Çekmeköy - Istanbul, Turkey

    M. Pinar Mengüç

  7. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science + Engineering, University of Toronto, Centre for Advanced Coating Technologies, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Javad Mostaghimi

  8. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Riverside, California, USA

    Kambiz Vafai

  9. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Vijay K. Dhir

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Dhir, V.K. (2018). Nucleate Pool Boiling. In: Handbook of Thermal Science and Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26695-4_41

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