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Transition and Film Boiling

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Handbook of Thermal Science and Engineering

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Abstract

Transition boiling, minimum film boiling (minimum heat flux), and film boiling are reviewed. The review will address pool and external flow boiling in Sect. 2. A discussion of internal flow boiling, with emphasis on post-critical heat flux regimes, will then follow in Sect. 3.

Pool boiling occurs without an imposed forced flow, where fluid flow is caused by phase change and natural convective only. In external flow boiling, the heated surface may be subject to an imposed fluid flow; however, the fluid field is much larger than the heated surface, and the heat transfer and phase change processes that occur at or near the heated surface have a minimal effect on the properties of the fluid away from the surface. In Sect. 2, the pool boiling curve and boiling regimes are reviewed, followed by a discussion of the phenomenology and theoretical aspects of hysteresis in transition boiling, the minimum film point, and the film boiling regime. Some widely used predictive methods are then presented.

In Sect. 3, the two-phase flow and heat transfer regimes in internal flow boiling in vertical and horizontal flow passages are discussed. Post-critical heat flux heat transfer regimes, including stable film boiling and dispersed droplet film boiling, are then discussed, and widely used predictive methods are presented.

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Abbreviations

CHF:

Critical heat flux

DNB:

Departure from nucleate boiling

LP:

Leidenfrost point

MFB:

Minimum film boiling

ONB:

Onset of nucleate boiling

OSV:

Onset of significant void

A :

Atomic number

C, CP:

Specific heat and constant-pressure specific heat (J/kg·K)

D :

Diameter (m)

D H :

Hydraulic diameter (m)

F :

Time-averaged fraction of the total heated surface that is in contact with liquid; Chen’s enhancement factor

G :

Mass flux (kg/m2·s)

Ga :

Galileo number

Gr :

Grashof number

\( \overrightarrow{g} \) :

Gravitational acceleration vector (m/s2)

g :

Gravitational constant (= 9.807 m/s2 at sea level)

h :

Heat transfer coefficient (W/m2∙K)

h fg :

Latent heat of vaporization (J/kg)

k :

Thermal conductivity (W/m·K)

L :

Length (m); characteristic length (m)

M :

Molar mass (kg/kmol)

Nu:

Nusselt number

P :

Pressure (N/m2)

Pr:

Prandtl number

q″:

Heat flux (W/m2)

R :

Radius (m)

Re:

Reynolds number

Ref:

Liquid-only Reynolds number

Reg:

Vapor-only Reynolds number

S :

Distance defining intermittency (m); Chen’s suppression factor

Sp :

Superheat number

Sp * :

Modified superheat number

T :

Temperature (K)

t :

Time (s)

u, v :

Velocity (m/s)

x :

Quality

x eq :

Equilibrium quality

X tt :

Martinelli’s factor

α :

Void fraction

α :

Thermal diffusivity (m2/s)

β :

Volumetric thermal expansion coefficient (K−1)

δ :

Film thickness (m)

ε :

Radiative emissivity

λ d :

Fastest-growing wavelength (m)

λ 3D :

Wavelength associated with three-dimensional interfacial waves

λ KH :

Fastest-growing wavelength for two-dimensional Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (m)

λ L :

Laplace length scale (capillary length) (m)

μ :

Viscosity (kg/m·s)

ν :

Kinematic viscosity (m2/s)

θ :

Azimuthal angle (rad); angle of inclination with respect to the horizontal plane (rad or degrees)

θ0,θa,θr:

Equilibrium (static), advancing, and receding contact angles (rad or degrees)

ρ :

Density (kg/m3)

σ :

Surface tension (N/m)

σ SB :

Stefan–Boltzmann constant (5.67 × 10−8 W/m2·K4)

τ :

Shear stress (N/m2)

_:

Area averaged

*:

Calculated at reference temperature

B:

Bubble, vapor bulge

cr:

Critical

eq:

Equilibrium

f:

Saturated liquid

FB:

Film boiling

Film:

Film temperature

FC:

Forced convection

g:

Saturated vapor

L:

Liquid

m:

Mixture, mixture average

NB:

Nucleate boiling

rad:

Radiation

ref:

Reference

sat:

Saturation

TB:

Transition boiling

v:

Vapor when it is not at saturation

W:

Water

w:

Wall

∞:

Ambient associated with a large surface

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    S. Mostafa Ghiaasiaan

Authors
  1. S. Mostafa Ghiaasiaan
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Correspondence to S. Mostafa Ghiaasiaan .

Section Editor information

  1. Armour College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Sumanta Acharya

  2. Gas Technology Institute, Des Plaines, Illinois, USA

    Yaroslav Chudnovsky

  3. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Renato Machado Cotta

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

    Ram Devireddy

  5. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Vijay K. Dhir

  6. Cekmeköy Campus, Özyegin University, Çekmeköy - Istanbul, Turkey

    M. Pinar Mengüç

  7. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science + Engineering, University of Toronto, Centre for Advanced Coating Technologies, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Javad Mostaghimi

  8. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Riverside, California, USA

    Kambiz Vafai

  9. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Vijay K. Dhir

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Ghiaasiaan, S.M. (2018). Transition and Film Boiling. In: Handbook of Thermal Science and Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26695-4_42

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