A Test Facility for Experimental Investigation of Nucleate Boiling on an Inclined Surface

Boiling heat transfer occurs in many industrial applications including heat exchangers and nuclear reactors. Predicting the rate of heat transfer and resulting temperatures is important to component design and safe operation of those components. Compared to single-phase heat transfer, boiling heat transfer is very complex since phase change introduces many extra parameters and flow characteristics. It is important to study and accurately predict the heat transfer that occurs not only in different boiling regimes, but also from a variety of geometries. One particular boiling regime of interest is nucleate pool boiling, which is characterized by both liquid and vapor in direct contact with the heated surface. Heat flux from the plate causes liquid to evaporate, creating bubbles on the surface. Depending on materials and geometry, those bubbles will either lift off of the surface or slide along the surface. Bubble dynamics is a very significant driving force for nucleate boiling heat transfer. A test facility was designed to study nucleate pool boiling on an upward-facing, long, inclined surface. The present study is aimed at visualizing the effect of bubble sliding and liftoff. The facility is unique in that the heat transfer surface is long enough such that bubbles can slide, coalesce, and lift off from the surface. The development effects observed in preliminary testing suggest that boiling heat transfer on a long inclined surface is dependent upon more than local parameters and that the upstream effects must be considered in heat transfer predictions, even in pool boiling scenarios with no forced flow. Because of these results, a more precise method of measuring axial effects (i.e., along the direction of the plate) on heat transfer will be implemented.

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Work Title A Test Facility for Experimental Investigation of Nucleate Boiling on an Inclined Surface
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Open Access
Creators
  1. Caleb Thompson
  2. Michael Riley
License In Copyright (Rights Reserved)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Transactions of the American Nuclear Society
Publication Date June 17, 2024
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.13182/T130-44788
Deposited January 28, 2025

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  • Added ANS_Summary_2024.pdf
  • Added Creator Caleb Thompson
  • Added Creator Michael Riley
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