Heat Transfer

Prof. Ganesh Viswanathan

Department of Chemical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

Lecture – 40
Boiling II

Consider a beaker filled with a fluid. There will be a certain temperature range for which
the heat transport occurs predominantly via natural convection. The flux of heat supplied
to the system increases with ΔT (see “1 Nat. convection” in the snapshot above). In this
regime, when heat is supplied occasional bubbles will form at the bottom surface.
Density difference will cause the bubbles to move up and this will set up the
recirculation motion in the beaker and thereby sets natural convection mode of heat
transfer. Thus the dominant mode of heat transport by natural convection. In this regime,
in spite of the sporadic bubble formation, fluid still retains the maximum contact with the
surface for heat transfer. Therefore, the primary transport of heat is only between the
solid surface and the liquid surface as reflected by the gradual increase in the flux (of
heat supplied) with temperature difference graph (see snapshot above).

The next phase is the nucleate boiling region. Free convection will continue to be
(dominant) mode of transport all the way to a certain maxima (“c” in the graph in the
snapshot above). In this region, till the inflection point, significant bubble formation will
occur at the bottom surface. After the inflection point, heat transport will be both due to
free convection and sensible heat transferred by the vapor phase, which now occupies a

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large fraction of the bottom surface. Thus, net heat transport is both due to sensible heat
carried by vapor and by liquid of the same fluid. Phase change affects transport by both
liquid and vapor. Since the conductivity of vapor is significantly smaller compared to
liquid, till the inflection point, majority of the energy is carried by the liquid phase. After
the inflection point, slowly transport via vapor phase takes over.

In the third boiling region, which is still nucleate boiling due to nucleation governing the
heat transport, significant bubble formation of the bottom surface may be observed (see
snapshot above). Bubbles close to each other will coalesce to form what is called “vapor
stream”. Due to coalescence, a stream/channel of vapor is created (see snapshot above).
Thus, the heat transport is primarily due to heat carried by vapor phase resulting in a
change in the dominant mode of heat transport. Since the density of vapor phase is
significantly smaller than liquid phase and the vapors would now form more quickly,
vapors will escape through the channel created causing quicker heat transfer due to
increased recirculation in the fluid and due to vigorous mixing introduced by the vapor
stream. Since mixing sets in, the net amount of heat needed for increasing ΔT will
reduce. Heat transport coefficient will start decreasing with more vapor formation as
residence time of vapor phase near the heating-surface contact time is very small and its
conductivity too being small.

Next stage is the transition stage where you cannot distinguish whether the bottom
surface is now in contact only with the vapor phase, in fact, it is going to be constant
switch between the vapor and the liquid phase. Therefore, the heat transport coefficient

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 will continue to decrease due to constant switching and the residence time or the
contact time between the fluid and the bottom surface being significantly smaller (see
snapshot above). This stage corresponds to the region between maxima and minima in
the boiling curve.

Next and the fifth stage is the film boiling where in the bottom surface is filled with
vapor only. Temperature difference is significantly higher that any fluid in contact with
the bottom surface will be instantaneously converted into its vapor phase. Thus, the
bottom surface will always be in contact with the vapor phase of the fluid (see
snapshot above). Conduction via vapor phase is the primary mode of heat transport.
Essentially, vapor will form and will all escape out. Thus, further increase in heat flux
supplied will lead to increase in the temperature difference as shown in the boiling
curve in the snapshot above. The minima in the boiling curve where film-boiling starts
is called the Leidenfrost point.

During boiling operation, one would usually not want to reach the state where the
surface is covered with vapor film. Thus, best way to boil a fluid is slowly reach the
maxima on the boiling curve and maintain constant flux conditions thereafter.

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 (Refer Slide Time: 15:39).

Flux of heat supplied is some heat transfer coefficient times the temperature difference.
Now the heat transfer coefficient as a function of the temperature difference can be
sketched as shown in the snapshot above.

Since the governing equations are complex to write, so are the solutions of these.
However, correlations are available for various stages of boiling. In the regime where
free convection is dominant, all correlations developed for natural/free convection can
be applied. For nucleate boiling, Rohsenow correlation is applicable as in the snapshot
above. For the case of film boiling, Nu can be estimated using the correlation shown in
the snapshot above.

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 Suppose both convection and radiation are important then the overall heat transport
coefficient can be defined as shown in the snapshot above.