Investigating the Mechanism of Nucleate Pool Boiling Heat Transfer

Simulating the Conductive Growth of a Vapor Bubble on a Heated Surface: Exploring the Mechanism of Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer. Omar Duran, David S. Rumschitzki, Jinyong Bao. Department of Chemical Engineering, The City College of New York (CUNY), New York, NY 10031

Our research project involves exploring the physics behind Nucleate Pool Boiling Heat Transfer, that is, slow boiling of a liquid on a hot solid surface. A simulation program written by a graduate student, Jinyong Bao, is used and modified. The program calculates the conductive heat transfer problem for the axisymmetric growth of a single nascent vapor bubble (with periodic boundary conditions laterally) on a hot solid surface. The overall goal is trying to understand the physics of the Mechanism of Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer. This allows for the possibility of being able to employ an ultra efficient method of heat transfer (since, due to the very large latent heats of many liquids, a small amount of evaporated liquid can carry away a large amount of heat) while confidently being able to avoid the catastrophic situation where if the solid surface even temporarily dries out. Such dry-out can irrevocably damage the solid that needs cooling.