Critical heat flux during natural convective boiling in inclined tubes submerged in saturated liquids

An experimental study was carried out to improve and expand understanding of boiling phenomena and the critical heat flux (CHF) during natural convective boiling in uniformly heated inclined tubes submerged in a pool of saturated liquids under atmospheric pressure. The test conditions were as follows: inter diameters of the test tubes ranged from 0.9 to 8.0 mm; heated lengths ranged from 100 to 400 mm, and inclination angles varied from 30° to vertical position. The test fluids were water and R-11. The experimental results showed that the CHF decreases with the increasing ratio of the tube length to the tube diameter, and with the reducing of the inclination angle. A semi-theoretical correlation, which originally used for the CHF during natural convective boiling in vertical tubes, was modified to predict the CHF occurs in the inclined tubes. The modified correlation agreed reasonably well with the present experimental data and other CHF data for narrow inclined annular tubes.