A FRACTAL ANALYSIS OF SUBCOOLED NUCLEATE POOL BOILING

Abstract

A fractal model for the subcooled nucleate pool boiling heat transfer is proposed in this paper. The analytical expressions for the subcooled nucleate pool boiling heat transfer are derived based on the fractal distribution of nucleation sites on boiling surfaces. The proposed fractal model for the subcooled nucleate pool boiling heat transfer is found to be a function of wall superheat, liquid subcooling, fractal dimension, the minimum and maximum active cavity size, the contact angle and physical properties of fluid. No additional/new empirical constant is introduced, and the proposed model contains less empirical constants than the conventional models. The model predictions are compared with the existing experimental data, and fair agreement between the model predictions and experimental data is found for different liquid subcoolings.