Study of vapor bubble growth and appraisal of correlations

Abstract

The growth of a bubble is a rapid, complex, and elusive phenomenon, but can be framed by correlations that tell us about the evolution of the radius of the bubble over time. A review of the growth experiments of a water vapor bubble in nucleate pool boiling on a horizontal surface allowed us to collect more than 2000 points, covering a pressure range from 2.04 to 4470 kPa and a Jakob Number ranging from 0.188 to 2689. From the literature, we have chosen nine known correlations and models; a visual and statistical analysis permitted us to compare the values predicted by the correlations to the experimental data, and the results show errors within a margin of 40 to more than 360%. A new correlation was developed with the least squares method using the experimental data collected, which gave convincing results with a mean error of 35% and a correlation coefficient of 0.96.