Bubble departure in the direct-contact boiling field with a continuous liquid-liquid interface

Behavior of vapor bubbles was experimentally investigated in the boiling field where a volatile liquid layer of per-fluorocarbon PF5050 (boiling point 306 K) was directly in contact with an immiscible hot liquid layer of water above it. Heat was supplied to the continuous liquid-liquid interface by the impingement of the downward hot water jet. Vapor bubbles were generated not only from this continuous interface but from a large number of PF5050 droplets floating on it. According to precise observation, incipience of boiling did not occur at the liquid-liquid interface but in the PF5050 liquid close to the interface in both cases of continuous and dispersed interfaces. As a result, the bubbles broke up the thin PF5050 liquid film above them and rose up into the water layer. This bubble departure phenomenon, which does not occur in the ordinary pool boiling field on the solid heating wall, is very important to evaluate the heat transfer performance in the present direct-contact boiling system. For modeling this behavior, sizes of the bubbles were measured at the moment just after they were released into the water pool. Volumes of the bubbles were larger in the case of departing from the continuous liquid-liquid interface than from the droplets. This tendency could be explained by taking into account the buoyancy force acting on unit area of the thin PF5050 liquid film above the bubble before departure, which was one of the most important parameters for the liquid film breakdown.