A study on bubble detachment and the impact of heated surface structure in subcooled nucleate boiling flows

This study examines the bubble detachment phenomena under subcooled nucleate boiling conditions, in order to obtain a better understanding of the bubble dynamics on horizontal flat heat exchangers. Refrigerant R134a is chosen as a simulant fluid due to its merits of having smaller surface tension, reduced latent heat, and lower boiling temperature than water. Experiments are run with varying experimental parameters, e.g. pressure, inlet subcooled level, flow rate, etc. Digital images are obtained at frame rates up to 4000 frames/s, showing the characteristics of bubble movements. Bubble departure and bubble lift-off, which are described as bubbles detaching from the original nucleation sites and bubbles detaching from the horizontal heated surface respectively, are both considered and measured. Results are compared against the model proposed by Klausner et al. for the prediction of bubble detachment sizes. While good overall agreement is shown, it is suggested that finite rather than zero bubble contact area should be assumed, which improves the model prediction at the pressure range of 300–500 kPa while playing no significant role at a lower pressure of 150 kPa where the model was originally benchmarked. The impact of heated surface structure is studied whose results provide support to the above assumption.