Saturated Pool Boiling Mechanisms During Single Bubble Heat Transfer: Comparison at Two Wall Superheats

A study of single bubbles growing on a microscale heater array kept at nominally constant temperature was performed. The behavior of bubbles nucleating at a single site at two different temperatures (22.5 K and 27.5 K superheat) is compared for saturated pool boiling of FC-72 at 1 atm. It is concluded that energy is transferred from the surface through similar heat transfer mechanisms at both superheats. Microlayer evaporation was observed to play a minor role in the overall heat transfer, with microconvection/transient conduction being the dominant mechanism. Evaluation of various heat transfer models are made.