The Effect of Gravity upon Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer

Abstract

There has been very little experimental work on the effects of acceleration (g) upon nucleate boiling. Two papers^1,2 have reported results for accelerations less than one g. (Usiskin and Siegel¹ explored the range from 0 to 1 g while Steinle² reported results for zero g.) Both experiments used drop towers having a free fall of approximately 10 ft corresponding to a time lapse of less than one sec. Thus the results probably suffered from transient effects. Merte and Clark³ investigated pool boiling for the range 1 to 21 g and did find some influence of g upon boiling. For q/A in excess of 50,000 Btu/hr ft² there seemed to be little influence but for lower heat fluxes a definite trend was found.

This paper was not formally included in the original program; however its contents were delivered by Dr. Adelberg and Professor Forster in the form of comments and discussions during the course of the Symposium and the following Panel on “Technical Applications of Zero-G Research.”