The Characteristics of Steam Bubbles in Subcooled Boiling Flow

Abstract

In two-fluid modeling and three-fluid modeling, the accurate prediction of the interfacial area concentration, interfacial heat transfer and interfacial shear stress, were required. In this works, the axial profiles of void fraction, interfacial area concentration and interfacial heat transfer coefficient along the flow direction could be measured. For the steam bubbles whose diameter were less than 8mm, the interfacial area concentration and the mean bubble diameter had a correlation with void fraction despite the variation of liquid flow rate and subcooling. In case the steam bubble collapse occurred due to an irregular bubble condensation and a turbulence of liquid flow, interfacial heat transfer coefficient with the bubble collapse was about twice of that without a bubble collapse. And the interfacial heat transfer coefficient without bubble collapse showed a good agreement with the correlation proposed by Akiyama. In addition, the supposed image processing method could be applied to the present experimental condition.