On the Scaling of Pool Boiling Heat Flux With Gravity and Heater Size

Abstract

A framework for scaling pool boiling heat flux is developed using data from various heater sizes over a range of gravity levels. Boiling is buoyancy dominated for large heaters and/or high gravity conditions and the heat flux is heater size independent. The power law coefficient for gravity is a function of wall temperature. As the heater size or gravity level is reduced, a sharp transition in the heat flux is observed at a threshold value of Lh /Lc = 2.1. Below this threshold value, boiling is surface tension dominated and the dependence on gravity is smaller. The gravity scaling parameter for the heat flux in the buoyancy dominated boiling regime developed in the previous work is updated to account for subcooling effect. Based on this scaling parameter and the transition criteria, a methodology for predicting heat flux in the surface tension dominated boiling regime, typically observed under low-gravity conditions, is developed. Given the heat flux at a reference gravity level and heater size, the current framework allows the prediction of heat flux at any other gravity level and/or heater size under similar experimental conditions. The prediction is validated using data at over a range of subcoolings (11 °C ≤ ΔTsub ≤ 32.6 °C), heater sizes (2.1 mm ≤ Lh ≤ 7 mm), and dissolved gas concentrations (3 ppm ≤ cg ≤ 3500 ppm). The prediction errors are significantly smaller than those from correlations currently available in the literature.