Name: Prakash Heman Juddoo ID: 0811870 Programme: Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering

Phases in boiling with particular referencing to nucleate boiling

Boiling is a type of phase transition during which there is rapid vaporization of a liquid. And this phenomenon occurs at the boiling point which is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid is equal to the pressure exerted on the liquid by the surrounding. Boiling occurs in four characteristic stages namely convection, nucleate, transition and film boiling (Takes place from low to high surface temperatures respectively).

Figure 1:

Each of the four segments of the graph shown below corresponds to a definite mechanism of boiling. During the first stage at low temperature drops, heat transfer to a liquid occurs by natural convection. Bubbles starts to form on the surface of the heater and are released from it. The bubbles then rise to the surface of the liquid and are disengaged into the vapor space, but they are too few to disturb appreciably the normal currents of free convection.

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Name: Prakash Heman Juddoo ID: 0811870 Programme: Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering
At larger temperature drops, lying in region C in the case shown in Figure 2, the rate of bubble production is large enough for the stream of bubbles moving up through the liquid to increase the velocity of the circulation currents in the mass of liquid, and the coefficient of heat transfer becomes

Figure 2: Heat transfer coefficient vs. change in temperature, boiling of water at 1 atm.
greater than that in undisturbed natural convection. As T is increased, the rate of bubble formation increases and the coefficient increases rapidly. The action occurring at temperature drops below the critical temperature drop is called nucleate boiling, in reference to the formation of tiny bubbles, or vaporization nuclei, on the heating surface. The formation of steam bubbles within liquid in micro cavities adjacent to the wall if the wall temperature at the heat transfer surface rises above the saturation temperature while the bulk of the liquid is still subcooled. As the bubbles grow, they reach some critical size and get separated from the wall, and are carried away into the main fluid stream. There the bubbles break because the temperature of the bulk fluid is not as high as at the heat transfer surface (where the bubbles were formed). During nucleate boiling, the bubbles occupy a small portion of the heating surface at a time, and most of the surface is in direct contact with the liquid. The bubbles are generated at localized active sites, usually at small pits or scratches at the heating surface. As the temperature drop is raised, more sites become active, improving the agitation of the liquid and increasing the heat flux and heat transfer coefficient. Eventually, many bubbles are formed which tend to coalesce on the heating surface to form a layer of insulating vapor. And this layer consists of a highly unstable surface from which miniature explosions send jets of vapor away from the heating element into the bulk of the liquid, and this phenomenon is called transition boiling. When increasing the temperature drop in this region the thickness of the vapor film increases and the number of explosions that occur in a given time is reduced. The heat flux and heat-transfer coefficient both fall as the temperature drop is raised.

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Name: Prakash Heman Juddoo ID: 0811870 Programme: Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering
The hot surface is then covered with a quiescent film of vapor, through which heat is transferred by conduction and by radiation at very high temperature drops. The random explosions of transition boiling disappear and are replaced by the slow and orderly formation of bubbles at the interface between the liquid and the film of hot vapor. These bubbles get detach from the interface and rise through the hot vapor. Virtually all the resistance to heat transfer is offered by the vapor sheath covering the heating element. As the temperature drop increases, the heat flux rises, slowly at first and then more rapidly as radiation heat transfer becomes important. The boiling action in this region is known as film boiling. The effectiveness of nucleate boiling depends primarily on the ease with which bubbles form and free themselves from the heating surface. The layer of liquid next to the hot surface is superheated by contact with the wall of the heater. The superheated liquid tends to form vapor spontaneously and so relieve the superheat. It is the tendency of superheated liquid to flash into vapor that provides the impetus for the boiling process. Physically, the flash can occur only by forming vapor-liquid interfaces in the form of small bubbles. Formation of a small bubble in a superheated liquid is not so easy because at a given temperature the vapor pressure in a very small bubble is less than in a large bubble or that form a plane liquid surface. A very small bubble can exist in equilibrium with superheated liquid, and the smaller the bubble, the greater the equilibrium superheat and the smaller the tendency to flash. A second difficulty appears if the bubble does not readily leave the surface once it is formed. The important factor in controlling the rate of bubble detachment is the interfacial tension between the liquid and the heating surface. If this interfacial tension is large, the bubble tends to spread along the surface and blanket the heat transfer area as shown in Figure 3(c), rather than leaving the surface to make room for other bubbles. If the interfacial tension between liquid and solid is low, the bubble will pinch shown in Figure 3(a). An example of intermediate interfacial tension is shown in Figure 3(b).

Figure 3: Effect on bubble formation of interfacial tension between liquid and heating surface. (After Jakob and Fritz.) The high rate of heat transfer in nucleate boiling is primarily the result of the turbulence generated in the liquid by the dynamic action of the bubbles.

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Name: Prakash Heman Juddoo ID: 0811870 Programme: Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering
The coefficient obtained during nucleate boiling is sensitive to a number of variables, including the nature of the liquid, the type and condition of the heating surface, the composition and purity of the liquid, the presence or absence of agitation, and the temperature or pressure. Minor changes in some variables cause major changes in the coefficient. A roughened surface provides centers for nucleation that are not present on a polished surface. Thus roughened surfaces usually give larger coefficients than smooth surfaces. This is due to the fact that the total surface of a rough tube is larger than that of a smooth surface of the same projected area. A very thin layer of scale may increase the coefficient of the boiling liquid, but then a thin scale will reduce the overall coefficient by adding a resistance that reduces the overall coefficient more than the improved boiling liquid coefficient increases it. Gas or air adsorbed on the surface of the heater or contaminants on the surface often facilitate boiling by either the formation or the disengaging of bubbles. A freshly cleaned surface may give a higher or lower coefficient than the same surface after it has been stabilized by a previous period of operation. This effect is associated with a change in the condition of the heating surface. Agitation increases the coefficient by increasing the velocity of the liquid across the surface, which helps to sweep away bubbles.

References: "Nucleate boiling heat transfer studied under reduced-gravity conditions", dr.D.F.Chao and dr.M.M.Hason, www.grc.nasa.gov, Nucleate boiling from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Unit operations of Chemical Engineer, 5th edition, Warren L. McCabe, Julian C. Smith and Peter Harriott, pg 386- pg 390.

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Name: Prakash Heman Juddoo ID: 0811870 Programme: Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering

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