An experimental investigation on bubble dynamics and boiling crisis in liquid films

This paper presents an experimental study of boiling and boiling crisis in a liquid film on a heater surface. The critical heat flux (CHF) values obtained in the present experiment mirror that of pool boiling, irrespective of initial liquid film thickness and liquid supply rate in the liquid film boiling case. This observation reinforces to the “scale separation” concept that high-heat-flux boiling and burnout are governed by micro-hydrodynamics in the liquid film on the heater surface. In addition to the CHF data, evolutions of bubbles and dry spots in the boiling liquid film are captured by means of high-speed high-resolution video camera. The dry spots were observed over surface heat flux ranging from 0.3 MW/m2 to CHF, typically covering an area less than 10% of the heater surface. Three types of dry spot evolution are observed: (1) under the low heat flux, dry spots are rewetted by receding water dam upon rupture of corresponding bubbles; (2) as the heat flux reaches 1.25 MW/m2, dry spots rewetting is additionally aided by liquid flow driven by growth of bubbles nucleated in the vicinity; (3) upon approaching the CHF, dry spot(s) cannot be rewetted anymore and expand laterally, leading to boiling crisis (burnout of the heater surface). The richness of observations and characterization of micro-hydrodynamics in the present study further demonstrates that observations and measurements on boiling liquid films provide a paramount window for investigation and understanding of physical mechanisms of boiling and boiling crisis.