Synchronized High-Speed Video, Infrared Thermometry, and Particle Image Velocimetry Data for Validation of Interface-Tracking Simulations of Nucleate Boiling Phenomena

Abstract

Nucleation, growth, and detachment of steam bubbles during nucleate boiling of a water pool at atmospheric pressure is experimentally investigated using a combination of synchronized high-speed video, infrared thermography, and particle image velocimetry. The heater is a thin (< 1-μm), horizontal (20 × 10 mm²), resistively heated, indium-tin-oxide film, vacuum deposited on a sapphire substrate (250-μm thick), which allows for unobstructed optical access from below the boiling surface. This approach enables detailed measurement of the phase, temperature, and velocity distributions on and above the boiling surface. The database reported herein is for isolated bubbles, exhibiting nucleation temperatures 107–109°C, bubble departure diameters 3.0–3.8 mm, frequencies 4.7–15.00 Hz, and wait and growth times 52–200 ms and 15–16 ms, respectively, at average heat fluxes 29–36 kW/m². The database is most useful for validation of modern simulations of nucleate boiling in which the phase, temperature, and velocity distributions within and around bubbles are resolved using interface capturing methods such as volume of fluid, level set, and front tracking.

Keywords:

• boiling heat transfer
• steam bubbles