Mathematical and experimental modeling of nucleate boiling heat transfer in liquid nitrogen

The investigation of nucleate boiling heat transfer, because of its complexity, is usually carried out experimentally and by using phenomenological approximations. The purpose of this work is to capture the essential features of nucleate boiling heat transfer in liquid nitrogen and to formulate a theoretical description useful for the prediction of the temperature fluctuations and beat flux. Experimental analysis was coupled with mathematical modeling to elucidate nucleate boiling heat transfer. The experimental setting consists of a platinum wire immersed in liquid nitrogen. A current is passed through the wire while the resistance is measured. The orientation of the wire can be changed from horizontal to vertical. The fluctuations of the wire temperature are measured. Using high-speed analysis, we characterized nucleate boiling heat transfer from the wire as occurring in two distinct phases or regimes: discrete nucleate boiling and transition boiling. We defined discrete nucleate boiling as the phase during which the active nucleation sites are clearly distinguishable from one another with no bubble coalescence occurring between adjacent sites.; The high-speed analysis helped also to compute the frequencies, diameters, and nucleation density of departing bubbles as well as the energy loss by a single bubble during the discrete nucleate boiling regime. These parameters were subsequently used to formulate a mathematical model to simulate by discrete time steps the discrete nucleate boiling heat transfer from the platinum wire.; The average temperature of the wire can be adequately modeled with only one variable, the power input. In addition to predicting the average temperature of the wire in the discrete nucleate boiling regime the model predicts well the average temperature of the wire in the conduction and convection regime and the transition regime. The model also reproduces the fluctuation of temperature in the discrete nucleate boiling regime. The mathematical model is useful to identify and classify all the parameters that could have an effect on stability and the transition to film boiling such as the circulation, a parameter identified in previous studies, and the autocorrelation. The circulation was generalized in this study.; The results of the mathematical model are consistent with the temperature fluctuations as obtained from the experiment. The results indicate that the assumptions made for the mathematical model are sufficient to capture the essential features of discrete nucleate boiling heat transfer.