Prediction of Bubble Departure in Forced Convection Boiling with a Mechanistic Model that Considers Dynamic Contact Angle and Base Expansion

A mechanistic model for bubble dynamics in flow boiling that is based on a force balance approach for a growing bubble is introduced. It considers evaporation of the microlayer underneath the bubble, thermal diffusion and condensation around the bubble cap as well as dynamic inclination and contact angles between the bubble and the heating wall. It requires no recalibration of parameters to predict the bubble growth. Validation against different experimental flow boiling data was carried out with no case-dependent recalibration and yielded good agreement. The simulations confirmed the dependency of bubble departure and lift-off diameters on different parameters, such as heat flux, liquid properties, subcooling temperature, system pressure, inclination angle of channel, channel geometry and mass flow rate.