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Thermal interaction effect on nucleation site distribution in subcooled boiling

Journal Article · · International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
OSTI ID:1045492
An experimental work on subcooled boiling of refrigerant, R134a, to examine nucleation site distributions on both copper and stainless steel heating surfaces was performed. In order to obtain high fidelity active nucleation site density and distribution data, a high-speed digital camera was utilized to record bubble emission images from a view normal to heating surfaces. Statistical analyses on nucleation site data were done and their statistical distributions were obtained. Those experimentally observed nucleation site distributions were compared to the random spatial Poisson distribution. The comparisons showed that, rather than purely random, active nucleation site distributions on boiling surfaces are relatively more uniform. Experimental results also showed that on the copper heating surface, nucleation site distributions are slightly more uniform than on the stainless steel surface. This was concluded as the results of thermal interactions between nucleation sites with different solid thermal conductivities. A two dimensional thermal interaction model was then developed to quantitatively examine the thermal interactions between nucleation sites. The results give a reasonable explanation to the experimental observation on nucleation site distributions.
Research Organization:
Idaho National Laboratory (INL)
Sponsoring Organization:
DOE - NE
DOE Contract Number:
AC07-05ID14517
OSTI ID:
1045492
Report Number(s):
INL/JOU-11-24123
Journal Information:
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Journal Name: International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer Journal Issue: 11 - 12 Vol. 55; ISSN 0017-9310; ISSN IJHMAK
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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