MECH 6375

Boiling Heat Transfer

and Two Phase Flow
Xianming (Simon) Dai, Ph.D.
Department of Mechanical Engineering
The University of Texas at Dallas

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 MECH 6375

Fundamentals of Boiling
Surface tension

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Surface tension in our life

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Surface tension in our life

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 Surfaces and interfaces

When phases exist together, the boundary

between two of them is known as an interface.

The properties of the molecules forming the

interface are often sufficiently different from
those in the bulk of each phase.

The term surface is used when referring to either

a gassolid or a gasliquid interface.

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Types of interfaces

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 Surface tension
A central concept in the theory of surfaces is the surface
tension.
Surface tension is the elastic tendency of a fluid surface
which makes it acquire the least surface area possible.
The surface tension depends on the two materials on each
side of the surface.
Definition of surface tension of an interface
G
12 ( )constant T , p
A
G: the Gibbs free energy
A: area
p: pressure and
T: temperature
Unit: J m-2 = N m-1

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Surface tension
Liquid droplets behave like small spherical
balloons filled with liquid, and the surface of the
liquid acts like a stretched elastic membrane
under tension.
The pulling force that causes this is due to the
attractive forces between molecules, and is
called the surface tension ss. (N/m), or
alternatively the surface energy (Nm/m2),
Attractive forces on surface molecules are not
symmetric, so these molecules are drawn in to
the interior of the liquid, creating tension at the
surface and causing the liquid to minimize its
surface area and to try to attain a minimum-
volume (spherical) shape.
Thus raindrops cant really have a tail as
depicted in cartoons and art

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For equilibrium, the surface free energy of a system
must be at a minimum.

Thus Liquid droplets tend to assume a spherical shape

since a sphere has the smallest surface area per unit
volume.

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 Why surface tension
Small size (e.g., microfluidics) large ratio S/V, surface force
can be dominating and important
The capillary effects can be understood by studying Gibbs
free energy G, the energy of systems where the
thermodynamic control parameters are
pressure p,
temperature T, and
particle number N.
In particular, we shall be interested in equilibrium state,
where the Gibbs free energy per definition is at a minimum.

G Gi
G ( ) 0
i

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Surface Tension in nature

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Surface tension and temperature
= 0 1
Note: We can use either or to represent surface tension.

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 Surface tension in mixtures

For 2-propanol/water mixtures, in which

2-propanol concentrates at the interface,
Meissner and Michaels developed the
following equation that can be used to predict
the mixture surface tension.

= [1 0.411log(1 + )
0.0026

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 Interfacial tension

Based on Fwokess studies, wab is known:

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= + 2 For phases a, b and g

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 Contact angle
Definition of the contact angle
The contact angle is defined as the angle between the
solid/liquid and the liquid/gas interfaces at the contact line
where three immiscible phases meet.
It appears at the contact line between three different phases,
typically the solid wall and two immiscible fluids.

The two concepts, contact angle and surface tension, allow for
understanding the capillary forces that act on two fluid flows
inside microchannels

Youngs Equation 16
 Youngs equation

Change CA, until the minimum surface energy G is reached.

Assumptions:
Flat;
Note: is variable, while E
Homogeneous;
Constant volume;
is the Youngs contact angle.
The equilibrium of forces acting on the triple line
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Surface tension and contact angle
For nonpolar solids, sg,d = sg

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YoungLaplace pressure across curved interfaces
YoungLaplace pressure drop psurf : across a curved interface in
thermodynamical equilibrium.
The expression for psurf is derived at the energy minimum condition
Gravity is neglected
Two contributions to the change G of the free energy of the system:
An increase in surface energy Gsurf due to an increased area
a decrease in pressure-volume energy GpV due to the increase in
volume.

G Gsurf G pV A - [A z ]psurf 0.

1 1
psurf ( ) 12
R1 R2

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Capillary rise

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Capillary effect and meniscus

wetting

non-
wetting

water mercury

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Capillary Effect
Capillary effect is the rise or fall
of a liquid in a small-diameter
tube.
Molecules of a wetting fluid are
more strongly attracted to the
glass tube than to the other fluid
molecules
A force balance describes the
magnitude of capillary rise.

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Determine the capillary rise height for water at 20 oC in a
capillary tube with an inside diameter of 0.2 mm. The contact
angle of the interface with the tube wall is 20 oC. The surface
tension and liquid density for water at 20 oC are 0.0728 N/m
and 998 kg/m3, respectively. The water contact angle is 10o.
The vapor density is 1.2 kg/m3.

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