Flow boiling heat transfer in microgravity: Recent results

Abstract

Flow boiling heat transfer (FBHT) allows high performance heat transfer due to latent heat transportation and its use is therefore important to reduce size and weight of space platforms and satellites. Its knowledge is also important for the safe operation of existing single-phase systems in case of accidental increase of heat generation rate. The number of existing researches on flow boiling in reduced gravity is very small due to both larger heat loads and available room in a 0-g apparatus for experiments. Consequently, coherence in existing data is somewhat missing. This lecture will summarize the results of the few research carried out on FBHT in microgravity, with special emphasis to the recent research carried out at ENEA, in the frame of an ESA (European Space Agency) project.