A planar simulation of film boiling and bubble formation in water at 373°C, 219 bar on an isothermal horizontal surface was performed by using a volume of fluid (VOF) based interface tracking method. The complete Navier-Stokes equations and thermal energy equations were solved in conjunction with a interface mass transfer model. The numerical method takes into account the effect of temperature on the transportive thermal properties (thermal conductivity and specific heat) of vapor, effects of surface tension, the interface mass transfer and the corresponding latent heat. The computations provided a good insight into film boiling yielding quantitative information on unsteady periodic bubble release patterns and on the spatially and temporally varying film thickness. The computations also predicted the transport coefficients on the horizontal surface, which were greatly influenced by the variations in fluid properties, compared to calculations with constant properties.

Issue Section:
Evaporative Boiling and Condensation
Keywords:
bubbles, film boiling, Navier-Stokes equations, surface tension, heat transfer, mass transfer, thermal conductivity, specific heat, latent heat, flow simulation, water, Boiling, Bubble Growth, Computational, Heat Transfer, Mass Transfer, Surface Tension
Topics:
Bubbles, Film boiling, Fluids, Simulation, Vapors, Water, Surface tension, Thermal properties, Heat transfer, Mass transfer, Temperature, Specific heat, Thermal conductivity, Latent heat, Heat flux
1.
Hirt
,
C. W.
, and
Nichols
,
B. D.
,
1981
, “
Volume of Fluid (VOF) Method For the Dynamics of Free Boundaries
,”
J. Comput. Phys.
,
39
, pp.
201
–
225
.
2.
Welch
,
S. W. J.
, and
Wilson
,
J.
,
2000
, “
A Volume of Fluid Bases Method for Fluid Flows with Phase Change
,”
J. Comput. Phys.
,
160
, pp.
662
–
682
.
3.
Son
,
G.
, and
Dhir
,
V. K.
,
1997
, “
Numerical Simulation of Saturated Film Boiling on a Horizontal Surface
,”
ASME J. Heat Transfer
,
119
, pp.
535
–
533
.
4.
Son
,
G.
, and
Dhir
,
V. K.
,
1998
, “
Numerical Simulation of Film Boiling Near Critical Pressures With a Level Set Method
,”
ASME J. Heat Transfer
,
120
, pp.
183
–
192
.
5.
Sussman
,
M.
,
Smereka
,
P.
, and
Osher
,
S.
,
1994
, “
A Level Set Approach for Computing Solutions to Incompressible Two-Phase Flow
,”
J. Comput. Phys.
,
114
, pp.
146
–
159
.
6.
Juric
,
D.
, and
Tryggvason
,
G.
,
1998
, “
Computation of Boiling Flows
,”
Int. J. Multiphase Flow
,
24
, pp.
387
–
410
.
7.
Unverdi
,
S. O.
, and
Tryggvason
,
G.
,
1992
, “
A Front-Tracking Method for Viscous, Incompressible, Multi-Fluid Flows
,”
J. Comput. Phys.
,
100
, pp.
25
–
37
.
8.
Banerjee
,
D.
, and
Dhir
,
V. K.
,
2001
, “
Study of Subcooled Film Boiling on a Horizontal Disk: Part I-Analysis
,”
ASME J. Heat Transfer
,
123
, pp.
271
–
284
.
9.
Dhir
,
V. K.
,
2001
, “
Numerical Simulations of Pool-Boiling Heat Transfer
,”
AIChE J.
,
47
, pp.
813
–
834
.
10.
Welch
,
S. W. J.
, and
Rachidi
,
T.
,
2002
, “
Numerical Computation of Film Boiling Including Conjugate Heat Transfer
,”
Numer. Heat Transfer, Part B
,
42
, pp.
35
–
53
.
11.
Berenson
,
P. J.
,
1961
, “
Film-Boiling Heat Transfer from a Horizontal Surface
,”
ASME J. Heat Transfer
,
83
, pp.
351
–
358
.
12.
Youngs, D. L., 1982, “Time-Dependent Multi-Material Flow With Large Fluid Distortion,” Numerical Methods for Fluid Dynamics, K. W. Morton and M. J. Baines, eds., Academic Press, New York, pp. 273–285.
13.
Rudman
,
M.
,
1997
, “
Volume-Tracking Methods for Interfacial Flow Calculations
,”
Int. J. Numer. Methods Fluids
,
24
, pp.
671
–
691
.
14.
Rider
,
W. J.
, and
Kothe
,
D. B.
,
1998
, “
Reconstructing Volume Tracking
,”
J. Comput. Phys.
,
141
, pp.
112
–
152
.
15.
Puckett
,
E. G.
,
Almgren
,
A. S.
,
Bell
,
J. B.
,
Marcus
,
D. L.
, and
Rider
,
W. J.
,
1997
, “
High-Order Projection Method for Tracking Fluid Interface in Variable Density Incompressible Flows
,”
J. Comput. Phys.
,
130
, pp.
269
–
282
.
16.
Brackbill
,
J. U.
,
Kothe
,
D. B.
, and
Zemach
,
C.
,
1992
, “
A Continuum Method for Modeling Surface Tension
,”
J. Comput. Phys.
,
100
, pp.
335
–
354
.
17.
Harlow
,
F. H.
, and
Welch
,
J. E.
,
1965
, “
Numerical Calculation of Time-Dependent Viscous Incompressible Flow of Fluid with Free Surface
,”
Phys. Fluids
,
8
, pp.
2182
–
2189
.
18.
Chang
,
Y. C.
,
Hou
,
T. Y.
,
Merriman
,
B.
, and
Osher
,
S.
,
1996
, “
A Level Set Formulation of Eulerian Interface Capturing Methods for Incompressible Fluid Flows
,”
J. Comput. Phys.
,
124
, pp.
449
–
464
.
19.
Leonard
,
B. P.
,
1979
, “
A Stable and Accurate Convective Modelling Procedure Based on Quadratic Upstream Interpolation
,”
Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng.
,
57
, pp.
415
–
438
.
20.
Van der Vorst
,
H. A.
,
1992
, “
Bi-CGSTAB: A Fast and Smoothly Converging Variant of Bi-CG for Solution of Non-Symmetric Linear Systems
,”
SIAM J. Sci. Stat. Comput.
,
12
, pp.
631
–
644
.
21.
Klimenko
,
V.
,
1981
, “
Film Boiling on a Horizontal Plate-New Correlation
,”
ASME J. Heat Transfer
,
24
, pp.
69
–
79
.
22.
Hosler
,
E. R.
, and
Westwater
,
J. W.
,
1962
, “
Film Boiling on a Horizontal Plate
,”
ARS J.
,
32
, pp.
553
–
560
.
Copyright © 2004
 by ASME
You do not currently have access to this content.