The Effect of Pressure, Geometry, and the Equation of State Upon the Peak and Minimum Boiling Heat Flux

Abstract

The peak and minimum boiling heat fluxes for a variety of fluids are correlated with pressure, with geometry as a parameter. These correlations are achieved with the use of nondimensionalizing functions of invariant fluid properties that are based upon Zuber’s proposed mechanism for the extreme heat fluxes and upon the Law of Corresponding States. The method of correlation is applied with success to data from the literature as well as to new measurements provided by the authors. A clear contribution of geometry is identified.