The effect of surfactants on boiling heat transfer

Boiling with surfactant additives is generally an exceedingly complex process, and it is influenced by a larger number of variables than the phase-change process of pure water. Besides the wall heat flux (or wall excess temperature), heating surface geometry, and bulk concentration of additives, the boiling behavior is also dependent upon interfacial properties, the nature of the additive, its chemistry, foaming, etc. Saturated and subcooled pool boiling of two kinds of surfactant solutions were investigated experimentally. The kinetics of boiling (bubble nucleation, growth, and departure) was investigated by high-speed video recording. Boiling curves for various concentrations were obtained and compared. The results show that the bubble behavior and-the heat transfer mechanism for a surfactant solution are quite different from those of pure water. Specific features of boiling of surfactant solutions were revealed.