The mechanism of heat transfer in nucleate pool boiling—Part I: Bubble initiaton, growth and departure

Abstract

A criterion is developed for bubble initiation from a gas filled cavity on a surface in contact with a superheated layer of liquid. It is found that the temperature of bubble initiation on a given surface is a function of the temperature conditions in the liquid surrounding the cavity as well as the surface properties themselves. It is also found that the delay time between bubbles is a function of the bulk liquid temperature and the wall superheat, and is not constant for a given surface. By consideration of the transient conduction into a layer of liquid on the surface, a thermal layer thickness is obtained. With this thickness and a critical wall superheat relation for the cavity, a bubble growth rate is obtained. Bubble departure is considered and it is found that the Jakob and Fritz relation works as long as the true (non-equilibrium) bubble contact angle is used. At one gravity the primary effect of bubble growth velocity on bubble departure size is found to be due to contact angle changes.