Numerical Simulation of Complete Pool Boiling Curves: From Nucleation to Critical Heat Flux Through Transition Boiling to Film Boiling

The latest version of the newly developed liquid-vapor phase-change lattice Boltzmann method, with a conjugate thermal boundary condition imposed at the solid-fluid interface, is applied to simulate numerically pool boiling from smooth, infinitely long, upward-facing, horizontal heated surfaces under controlled wall temperature conditions. A parametric study is carried out to investigate effects of wettability as well as heater and fluid physical properties on pool boiling curves, from onset of nucleation to critical heat flux (CHF) through transition boiling to stable film boiling. It is found that although a heater's wettability has no effect on film boiling, it has important effects on nucleate boiling and transition boiling. Decreasing heater wettability shifts the nucleate and transition boiling curves to the left, decreases the maximum heat flux, decreases the minimum heat flux (MHF), and lowers the Leidenfrost temperature. With the increase of the heater's thermal conductivity, both the MHF and the Leidenfrost temperature decrease, but this has no effect on nucleate boiling, CHF, or film boiling. On the other hand, increasing the vapor's thermal conductivity has no effect on nucleate boiling, but it increases the MHF and decreases the Leidenfrost temperature in transition boiling as well as in film boiling.