Dissolved gas effects on thermocapillary convection during boiling in reduced gravity environments

The mechanisms by which thermocapillary convection arises during boiling of nominally pure fluids in low-g environments are currently not known. It has recently been suggested that small amounts of dissolved gas within the bulk liquid can accumulate within the vapor bubble, forming localized concentration gradients that results in a temperature gradient to form along the liquid–vapor interface that drives thermocapillary convection. This hypothesis was tested by boiling > 99.3% pure n-perfluorohexane with and without noncondensible gas in a low-g environment using a 7.0 × 7.0 mm2 microheater array to measure time and space resolved heat transfer at various wall superheats. The thermocapillary convection around the primary bubble that formed in the gassy fluid was found to be much weaker than in the degassed fluid, and the primary bubble diameter was much larger in the gassy fluid due to the accumulation of noncondensible gas within the bubble. The results suggest that the accumulation of noncondensible gas in the bubble can result in temperature variations along the interface but due to the increased vapor/gas bubble size, the driving thermocapillary temperature gradient along the interface is significantly reduced and result in much weaker thermocapillary flow. The highest CHF values in a reduced gravity environment (19 W/cm2) occurred when the fluid was highly subcooled and degassed.