Experimental Investigation of Single Bubble Nucleate Boiling in Microgravity

Abstract

The multiscale boiling project, also known as RUBI, is an experimental project supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) focusing on the nucleate boiling within the framework of the utilization of the International Space Station (ISS). In order to investigate the operational behavior of the experimental components and determine a promising parameter range, an experimental setup with the same heater design is constructed and tested within the similar parameter range in the framework of the ESA 70th parabolic flight campaign. The present work introduces the experimental setup as well as the measurement methodologies. It concentrates on the results obtained for the nucleate boiling in the absence of external forces such as electric field or shear flow, which are also part of the multiscale boiling project. A barium fluoride glass sputtered with chromium on the top of a chromium nitride layer served as the heater. The manufacturing process of the heater substrate is presented in detail. In order to generate a vapor bubble in the subcooled liquid pool, a laser beam is used to provide the necessary heat at an artificial nucleation site situated at the center of the glass. The experimental setup allows for time adjustment between switch-on of the heater and shooting the laser which is defined as preheating time. The effect of the preheating time on the nucleation and behavior of the bubbles is investigated. Furthermore, by selecting a long laser pulse duration the influence of the laser thermal energy on the growth of the bubbles is studied. It is observed that the preheating time has a significant effect on the bubble growth. However, no influence of the laser shot is detected on the bubble growth, even for a long pulse duration.