Transactions of the Korean Nuclear Society Autumn Meeting

Gyeongju, Korea, October 25-27, 2017

Bubble Phenomena and Critical Heat Flux (CHF) from Horizontal, Vertical,
and Inclined Surfaces in a Saturated Pool

Elvira F. Tanjung and Daeseong Jo*

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 702-701, Korea
*
Corresponding author: djo@knu.ac.kr

1. Introduction by laterally compressing the assembly with a set of M4

fasteners.
Pool boiling at various heater orientations is essential A single plate of PCB heater made by copper with a
for the efficient operation, safety and development of length of 100 mm, and a width and thickness of 1.5 mm
nuclear reactors since it has significant effects on boiling and 50 m respectively is shown in Fig. 2(a). The copper
process. Bubble phenomena: bubble growth, merger and heater was polished with sand paper and Alumina
departure processes are critical parameters for nucleate powder to have a uniform surface condition in every
boiling. experiment. The roughness average of the PCB heater
Previous investigations indicated that bubble was checked by the atomic force microscopy (AFM)
departure diameter and nucleation site density increased which measured 0.1 m. Moreover, using a sessile drop
as the heater surface is placed horizontally facing upward method, the PCB heater surface wettability was
at 0 angle to vertical at 90 angle [4]. Kim et al. [3] measured 81.9 and compared with previous studies.
experimented in a pool filled with demineralized water Zhang et al. (1984), Ponter et al. (1985) and Exterand et
as their working fluid and copper block as the heater. al. (2003) investigated the contact angle of droplet water
They investigated that the approximate bubble diameter on a copper surface were 71, 78 and 69 respectively
and overall size in the upward heater surfaces are slightly while Lee (2015) measured 81.05. The heater surface in
larger than those in the downward heater surfaces. the present work shows a hydrophilic surface with 0 <
Nishikawa et al. [5] observed remarkable effect on the < 90 which means has a high wettability [10]. Figure
low heat flux as the heater orientation increased, while 2(b-c) showed the surface roughness and wettability of
no marked effect at high heat fluxes. Rainey and You [6] the PCB heater.
investigated the effects of heater size and orientation on The test section was filled with de-ionized water and
pool boiling heat transfer. The critical heat flux (qCHF) heated up to the saturated temperature by a preheater.
decreased with increasing heater size and orientation Once it reached the saturation temperature, the preheater
angle. was turned off, and the heating jacket (250W) was turned
The aim of present study is to investigate the bubble on to maintain the fluid in saturation temperature. A K-
phenomena and CHF from horizontal, vertical, and type sheathed thermocouple was placed 25mm
inclined surfaces in a saturated pool. Furthermore, the horizontally apart from the edge of the PCB heater to
pool boiling phenomena at 0, 45, 90, 135, and 180 monitor the bulk temperature. Another K-Type sheathed
orientation angles will be recorded with a high-speed thermocouple was placed on the heating jacket to control
camera to give better understanding of the bubble the heating jacket temperature.
phenomena. A DC power supply with the voltage range of 0-10
Volt and current range of 0-100 Ampere was used to
2. Experimental Apparatus supply the power to the PCB heater. The DC power
supply was connected to a power meter by a current
Pool boiling experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1. sensor terminal to get the exact power that was supplied
The test section is made of Aluminum with the overall to the PCB heater.
dimensions of 260 mm x 160 mm x 60 mm. Two A high-speed camera (MIRO EX4) with 800x600
polycarbonate visualization windows were held in place pixels was used to record the bubble phenomena during

Table I: Correlations of Pool Boiling CHF

Reference Correlation

Vishnev (1974) [2]



El-Genk and Guo (1993) [8]   


Brusstar and Merte (1994) [9]


Arik and Bar-Cohen (2001) [7]