A Review of Interfacial Phenomena of Mixture Boiling under Microgravity

Abstract

This paper provides a mini-review for current understanding toward the boiling transport phenomena in microgravity environment, considering interfacial behavior, bubble dynamics and boiling heat transfer rate. The Marangoni effect, or the thermocapillary-driven liquid flow around bubbles, has finite impact on pool boiling in one-g environment; however, its role becomes much more significant as the bubble size and/or gravity decrease. Under micro- or zero-gravity condition the interfacial flow, replacing buoyancy and natural convection, dominates the interfacial behavior, bubble dynamics and heat transfer performance. The models and heat transfer correlations had been proposed for predicting pool boiling heat transfer of mixture of liquids in microgravity environment.