Nucleate Pool Boiling eXperiment (NPBX) in microgravity: International Space Station

The results of the experiments show that at low superheats, bubbles generated on the heater surface slide and merge to yield a large bubble located in the middle of the heater. At high superheats, the large bubble may lift off from the heater but continue to hover near the surface. In both these scenarios, the large bubble serves as a vapor sink. Natural convection heat transfer in microgravity was found to be consistent with that predicted by available correlations. Steady state nucleate boiling and maximum heat fluxes are found to be lower than those obtained under earth normal gravity conditions. The heat transfer coefficients for nucleate pool boiling are found to be weakly dependent on the level of gravity (h/hge ∝ (g/ge)1/8). Maximum heat flux also shows a weaker dependence on gravity than that given by the hydrodynamic theory of boiling. The data are useful for calibration of results of numerical simulations. Any correlations that are developed for nucleate boiling heat transfer under microgravity condition must account for the existence of vapor escape path (large vapor bubble acting as a sink) from the heater, relative size of the large bubble and heater, and the size and geometry of the chamber used.