Multiphase Science and Technology A Quarterly

ISSN for PRINT: 0276-1459

For Online Access

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2000, Volume12

Issue 3&4

302 pages

Issue price - $280.00

Q. Bai
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyushu University, Hakozaki 6-10-1, Fukuoka, 812-8581, Japan

Y. Fujita
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyushu University, Hakozaki 6-10-1, Fukuoka, 812-8581, Japan

A numerical simulation scheme was developed in this paper to analyze the bubble growth process in nucleate boiling. A single bubble was assumed to grow axisymmetrically on an isothermal wall with heat being supplied through the microlayer beneath the growing bubble and from the superheated liquid outside the bubble cap. In the simulation no assumption was made on the bubble shape during its growth. Stephan and Hammer model was used for the evaporation in the micro-region beneath the bubble. In the macro-region around the bubble cap, transient Navier-Stokes and energy equations were solved using a two-dimensional arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian finite element method (ALE-FEM) based on quadrilateral elements. Numerical calculation was carried out in nucleate boiling under saturated, subcooled, terrestrial- and reduced-gravity conditions. The present simulation scheme offers a useful means to consistently investigate the growth process of an isolated vapor bubble in various conditions with a minimum number of assumptions and simplifications. It enables to describe quantitatively the flow and temperature fields around the growing bubble from the inception through departure to subsequent rising in stagnant fluid.

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