Bubble Dynamics for Nucleate Pool Boiling of Water, Ethanol and Methanol Pure Liquids under the Atmospheric Pressure

Bubble dynamics is the most important sub-phenomenon, which basically affects the nucleate pool boiling heat transfer coefficient. In this research, bubble departure diameter values were experimentally measured for heat fluxes up to 110 kW.m-2. Experiments were carried out for pool boiling of pure liquids, including water, ethanol and methanol on a horizontal smoothed cylinder, at atmospheric pressure. For ethanol and methanol, rigid spherical bubbles with small contact area were observed. The spherical shapes seem to be because of small diameters.For all test fluids, experimental results show that bubble diameter increases with increasing heat flux. Most predictions have a similar trend for increasing bubble diameter versus increasing heat flux. Also, the existing well-known and most common used correlations are comparatively discussedwith the present experimental data. Finally, a new model for the prediction of vapor bubble departure diameter, based on Buckingham theory, in nucleate boiling is proposed, which predicts the experimental data with a satisfactory accuracy.