Bubble and boundary layer behaviour in subcooled flow boiling

Abstract

Subcooled flow boiling is a commonly applied technique for achieving efficient heat transfer. In the study, an experimental investigation in the nucleate boiling regime was performed for water circulating in a closed loop at atmospheric pressure. The horizontal orientated test-section consists of a rectangular channel with a one side heated copper strip and good optical access. Various optical observation techniques were applied to study the bubble behaviour and the characteristics of the fluid phase. The bubble behaviour was recorded by the high-speed cinematography and by a digital high resolution camera. Automated image processing and analysis algorithms developed by the authors were applied for a wide range of mass flow rates and heat fluxes in order to extract characteristic length and time scales of the bubbly layer during the boiling process. Using this methodology, the bubbles were automatically analysed and the bubble size, bubble lifetime, waiting time between two cycles were evaluated. Due to the huge number of observed bubbles a statistical analysis was performed and distribution functions were derived. Using a two-dimensional cross-correlation algorithm, the averaged axial phase boundary velocity profile could be extracted. In addition, the fluid phase velocity profile was characterised by means of the particle image velocimetry (PIV) for the single phase flow as well as under subcooled flow boiling conditions. The results indicate that the bubbles increase the flow resistance. The impact on the flow exceeds by far the bubbly region and it depends on the magnitude of the boiling activity. Finally, the ratio of the averaged phase boundary velocity and of the averaged fluid velocity was evaluated for the bubbly region.