Mathematical Model for Boiling Heat Transfer from a Thin Wire in Liquid Nitrogen

Abstract

In observations of steady state nucleate boiling, fluctuations in the temperature and heat flux might initially appear to be completely random. However, for a platinum wire immersed in liquid nitrogen, it has been shown that the fluctuations about the steady state exhibit an average counterclockwise circulation when the heat flux is plotted versus the degree of superheat. A model is constructed to simulate, by discrete time steps, the fluctuations in the boiling heat transfer process from a thin wire immersed in liquid nitrogen. The fluctuations in the wire temperature and heat flux obtained from the mathematical model are compared with experimental data. From the insight gained, several parameters are identified that seem to capture the essential features of the experimental observations.