Studies on pool boiling heat transfer: Macrolayer thickness in transition boiling

Macrolayer thicknesses in transition boiling were determined from the energy balance relation q_tr = ρ_lH_fgδ_l·f , based on measurements of q_tr (the time-averaged heat flux in transition boiling) and f (the detachment frequency of vapor masses) for water and ethanol boiling on vertical and horizontal 15-mm-diameter surfaces under atmospheric pressure. The macrolayer thickness for the vertical surface, designed to prevent liquid contact with the periphery of the surface during the vapor mass hovering, agreed well with the correlation proposed previously by the present authors, when the heat flux at macrolayer formation is obtained from a nucleate boiling curve extrapolated to the superheat of transition boiling. The macrolayer on the horizontal surface was apparently thickened due to the inflow of bulk liquid beneath the growing vapor masses. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Heat Trans Jpn Res, 27(8): 568–583, 1998