An Experimental Study of the Transition from Nucleate to Film Boiling under Zero Gravity Conditions

Abstract

The handling and control of fluids in satellites and advanced space-vehicle development requires extensive theoretical and experimental investigations in the low-gravity field. Liquid behavior and heat transfer studies are of special interest and some studies have already been performed,^1,2,3,4 but all experimental investigations are of qualitative nature. The purpose of this study is to initiate a quantitative experiment and to demonstrate the sensitivity of the transition point from nucleate to film boiling (maximum heat flux, q/A max) to the gravitational acceleration. This can theoretically be shown by varying the g in the equations derived by Zuber or Kutateladze-Borishanskii⁵ which predict q/A max proportional to the 0.25-power of the gravitational acceleration, which means an increase of the heat-transfer rates at q/A max with increasing g, and a decrease with decreasing g.

Reprinted from Proceedings of the 1960 Heat Transfer and Fluid Mechanics Institute with the permission of the publishers, Stanford University Press. Copyright 1960 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.