Study on Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer by Measuring Detailed Surface Temperature Distribution and Variation With Infrared Radiation Camera

Abstract

Pool boiling heat transfer experiments were performed for water at 101 kPa to examine elementary process of nucleate pool boiling. The heat transfer surface was made from a copper printed circuit board. The size of the heat transfer surface was 10 mm × 10 mm. Direct current was supplied to the heat transfer surface to heat it up. The Bakelite plate of the backside of the copper layer was taken off at the center portion of the heat transfer surface. The test vessel was a closed 200-mm cube container made of duralumin. It has transparent view windows on opposing side walls made of a Polycarbonate plate to observe a boiling state. Heat transfer surface was placed at the bottom of the test vessel. Distilled water was used for the experiments. The instantaneous variation of the backside temperature of the heat transfer surface was measured with an infrared radiation camera. Bubble behavior was recorded with a high speed video camera. The time and the space resolution of the infrared radiation cameras used in present experiments were 60 Hz and 0.1 mm × 0.1 mm, and 120 Hz and 0.315 mm × 0.315 mm, respectively. When the heat flux was increased, the instantaneous surface temperature variation explain the pattern. In the isolated bubble region, surface temperature was uniform during waiting time. When boiling bubble generation started, a large dip in the surface temperature was formed under the bubble. After the bubble left from the heat transfer surface, the surface temperature returned to former uniform temperature distribution. Surface temperature was not affected by the bubble generation beyond 1.8 mm from the center of the bubble. In the intermediate and high heat flux region, the variation of surface temperature and heat flux were small. Rather the heat flux variation range was close to that at the isolated boiling region.