Numerical analysis on transition sequence and heat transfer capacity of film boiling with a uniform electric field

Abstract

A finite volume method solver for the electric field-enhanced boiling is developed based on the OpenFoam v2012 framework. The film-boiling scenario with the influence of electric fields is numerically analyzed. By coupling the Tanasawa model and the leaky-dielectric model, the accuracy of the numerical description of the natural physical phenomenon is improved. For an overheated temperature of ΔT = 5, 10, 20 K, the system exhibits a classic quasi-periodicity sequence, an alternate periodic-chaotic sequence, and a periodic-chaotic sequence, respectively. The results show that the bubble column scenario leads to a better heat transfer capacity. The vertical electric field can improve the heat transfer capacity by elongating the bubble, accelerating the bubble release frequency, and promoting the system from film boiling to nucleate boiling. The maximum time-averaged Nusselt number of the system is calculated to be 23.42, and the maximum heat transfer enhancement ratio is 5.08.