LEITERS IN HEAT AND MASS T R A I ~ E R Pregamon Press

Vol. 4, pp. 319 329, 1977 Printed in Great Britain

NUCLEATE BOILING AT A LIQUID - LIQUID INTERFACE

D. Moalem*, W. Zijl and S.J.D. van Stralen

Eindhoven University of Technology
Laboratory for Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer
Eindhoven, the Netherlands

(Communicated by E. Hahne)

Introduction

Conventional solid-liquid boiling

A maximum heat flux in nucleate boiling occurs due to frequent bubble

coalescence. The formation of a coherent vapour film results in a local ther-
mal insulation of the solid wall. As a consequence, the superheating is in-
creasing rapidly. In view of practical applications (heat exchangers, nuclear
reactors), great efforts have been made to increase the maximum nucleate
boiling heat flux, e.g. by a (limited) elevation of pressure and by the intro-
duction of forced convection, both in combination with a subcooling of the
bulk liquid.

Miscible binary systems

Also, substantial improvements are obtained by application of "positive"

binary systems [i]. At a low concentration of the more volatile component,
the bubble frequency has been increased in combination with a diminishing
tendency for bubble coalescence.

Immiscible binary systems

The new idea of nucleate boiling at a liquid-liquid interface is shown to

* Present Address: School of Engineering, Tel-Aviv University

Department of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer
Tel-Aviv, Israel

319
320 D. Moalem, W. Zijl and S.J.D. van Stralen Vol. 4, No. 5

be promising. Bubble generation occurs then in close proximity of the heated

solid wall and the onset of film boiling at the wall is prevented. The con-
cept of llquld-liquid boiling is based on the introduction of a heavier thin
liquid layer with higher boiling temperature between the heating surface and
the boiling bulk liquid (the light phase). If the two liquids are immiscible,
stably stratified liquid layers are formed. When the solid surface at the bot-
tom is heated, nucleation occurs at the llquid-liquid interface: Here water
and n-pentane are used as heavy and light phase respectively. For practical
purposes, however, oil and water may be considered and also thin oil films on
a vertical wall may be used. It is worth noticing that in [2] film boiling
of i~miscible liquid mixtures on a horizontal plate has been investigated,
however, the aim of that study was to investigate the heat transfer rates and
no description of the individual bubbles, generated at the liquid-liquid in-
terface, is presented there.

Finally, it is noted that the theoretical results for growth and departure,
including the effect of an evaporating mierolayer, can also be applied for con-
ventional pool- and flow-boiling situations.

In this paper only a summary of the results is presented. A detailed

description is given in the book "Boiling Phenomena" [3].

Experiments and Description of Phenomena

Experimental setup

Experiments have been carried out using glass cylinders with inner dia-
meters of 4 cm and 10 cm respectively. At the bottom of the cylinder, an
aluminum plate was connected with a heater, so that the heavy liquid was
heated from below. As heavy and light liquid water and n-pentane were used
respectively.

Evaluation of data

The evaporated amount of pentane vapour was condensed and from the rate
of condensation the heat flux could be determined. The temperature at the
liquid-llquld interface was measured by a thermo-couple. In this way, the
"boiling curve" (heat flux vs. superheating of interface) can be plotted,
Vol. 4, No. 5 ~ T E BOILING OF A LIQUID-LIQUID INTERFACE 321

cf. Fig. i. 15

Boiling curve for n- pentone

Z
I0 X

.2
0 &

/o
O0 ' J , I , I , I .
I0 20 30 40 50
eo,"K
FIG. I
Boiling curve for n-pentane at quiescent water interface.

Observations

(i) In absence of nucleation, i.e., at sufficiently small heat fluxes,

convection currents in the pentane are accompanied by small ripples at the
interface. At a sufficiently high superheating, where nucleation has not yet
started spontaneously, mechanically induced ripples were able to promote
322 D. Moalem, W. Zijl and S.J.D. van Stralen Vol. 4, No. 5

nucleation. Further increase of the superheating results in a spontaneous

start of nucleation. The generation of only one bubble activates nuclei in
its close proximity and frequently clusters of bubbles are observed. Sum-
marizing these observations, it is concluded that the motion of the interface
promotes nucleation.

(ii) Only under (quasi) steady heat flux conditions, a relatively large
waiting time (approximately i0 seconds) resulting in a large bubble departure
radius (approximately 0.5 cm) is observed. Generally this mode does not exist
and a continuous train of small bubbles (departure radii of approximately
0.5 mm) is observed.

(iii) When heating from below, adhearing bubbles are travelling along
the complete interface, cf. Fig. 2. However, when cooling from below there
are no bubble translations. Similarly, heat production at only one small spot
of the aluminum plate prevents translation. At high heat fluxes, when the
density of the nucleli is high, the bubbles travel in the direction from the
center to the wall of the cylinder. Possibly surface tension gradients, in-
duced by gradients in temperature over the bubble boundary and the interface,
cause the translatory motion, cf. [4].

Theoretical Bubble Growth and Departure

and the Influence of an Evaporatin$ Microlayer

In conventional solid-liquid boiling, it is well established that a thin

evaporating liwuid microlayer is formed beneath a growing bubble. Also in
the present analysis of nucleation phenomena at a liquid-liquid interface, the
possibility of such a layer is accounted for. The existence of a microlayer
results in two effects:

i) Due to evaporation, it contributes to the vapour production,

which causes the bubble to blow up.
ii) When the bubble translates it causes a lift force, which pro-
motes detachment; a full account of this latter phenomenon is
presented in [3].

Due to evaporation, a triple interface between the two im~isclble liquid

phases and the vapour phase exists. Consequently the total pressure of the
Vol. 4, No. 5 NUCLEATE BOILING OF A LIQUID-LIQUID ~ A C E 323

0,0 mS 15.0 ms 30,0 ms

45.0 r ~ i 60.0 m s 75~ms

1 ~ 0 ms

12~5 ms 135:0ms 142~ ms - . ~

FIG. 2
Travelling nuclei at pentane-water interface.
324 D. Moalem, W. Zijl and S.J.D. van Stralen Vol. 4, No. 5

vapour in the bubble equals:

Pv(Ts + 8 R) = p(T s + @R ) + Pb(Ts + O R ) (1)

Obviously p~ = 0 for a solid-liquid interface, but at a liquid-liquid

interface the ratio between the two vapour pressures generally plays an im-
portant part [2].

For a non-translatlng bubble, the heat diffusion equations, describing

the heat flux in the light phase to the bubble cap and the heat flux in the
heavy phase reduce to a half order in time relationship [3,5]:

i d
GR - e = (kpc)~ dt- qc ' (2)

1 d -
0 - 0oo = (3)
w (kpC)b~ d[t_T]- qw "

T(r) is the time after onset of growth, at which the bubble starts to
cover a place r of the heavy phase. T is determined by the implicit re-
lationship, R (T) = r. However, in what follows, this is approximated by
c
T -- 0, which results in an underestimation of the heat flux through the micro-
layer. As is shown below, this results in an underestimation of the time,
during which initial (Rayleigh-) growth occurs.

For the case that the translation velocity is much larger than the growth
rate, equations (2,3) have to be replaced by the convection equations [3,6]:

_ ~ i R
eR e =- (~) (~) qc
= (kpc)~

l R
(5)
w (kpc)

For the heat flux from the light phase to the bubble cap, the require-
ment for evaporation is:

qc = (0vl)a(R - Uv)" (6)

Vol. 4, No. 5 NTJCI2ATE BOILING OF A LIQUID-LIQUID ~ A C E 325

U
represents the velocity of the vapour in the bubble, arriving homo-
v
geneously at the bubble cap. This vapour is produced by evaporation of the
microlayer, where the heat flux requirement is given by the following expres-
sion:

@R-Gw 2
qw = h = (0vl) a U . (7)
i - ~ v
R

Precise knowledge about the thickness of the evaporating microlayer is

not needed, since this layer is very thin. Consequently, the temperature drop
T R - TW across this layer is small with respect to OR and OW, even for
high fluxes qw" In this way, the unknown Uv can be eliminated by assuming
0 = OR in (2,3) or (4,5).
w
In case of a non-translating bubble the resulting equation is:

0vl d-
0R - 0 = _ l__a
( ~ - )a at- [ z (k0C)b~ ] (8)
i+(i
R (k0c) a

For a rapidly translating bubble, it is:

_ ~ i Pv I R
OR ~ =- (2)-~
a
(--f-)a (U -) (9)
I+ (1-z/R) 3/4 (k0c)~
(l+z/R) l/4 (k0C)a

From (9,10), it is seen that, due to the evaporating microlayer, the decrease
in temperature of the vapour is diminished. This results in a prolongation
of the Rayleigh growth [i].

Expressions for Growth and Departure

Equations (9) and (i0) have to be solved simultaneously with the Rayleigh
equation for the bubble radius R[I] and with the Kelvin momentum equation
for the bubble displacement z[7]. Only the results of non-translating
nucleus, R >> U, are presented here.
326 D. Moalem, W. Zijl and S.J.D. van Stralen Vol. 4, No. 5

Initial srowth

R(t) = C t
O
; R (t) = (Cop t2 -
c 16
t4) i (io)

C2
4Co 4 o (ii)
td = g ' Rd=
g

where
2 Pv I Pvl 0vl )
(12)
C = ( ~ ( 0--~s )a (i + F) O~ ) ; r = ( ~---)b / ( r
O S S

For solid-liquid boiling, P = 0 and the result of eq. (ii) (with P = 0)

agrees with the values measured in [8] for pool boiling of potassium at sub-
atmospheric pressures.

1.0
".T"r' o,
2.'
,.... ,.:.+"~'
** *

E
E .m
....~"
n,,

0.5-

% ; l

2
li

3
*

4
a

5
I

6
I

7 m_8 9
I I

I0
I I

II 12
= lO#tE,S t
FIG. 3
Bubble radius vs. time for boiling n-pentane at water interface.
Vol. 4, No. 5 NUCLEATE BOILING OF A LIQUID-LIQUID I ~ C E 327

Asymptotic srowth

R(t) = C t ; Re(t) = (C~t - 4g225 t4) (13)

5C~ )2/3 5C~ )1/3

td = ( ~--g ; Rd = ( ~ (14)

where
pc%
c =2_ ( _ _ ) a a (15)
~ PvI "

Obviously, bubble departure is promoted substantially by translation. It

is noted that in these formulas it is assumed that initially the contact angle
equals zero; this assumption can easily be relaxed.

Equations (13 - 15) are in good agreement with the experimental data,
shown in Fig. 3.

Acknowledgements

F. Ramakers and H. Maas contributed substantially in carrying out the

experiments.

Notation

a -
liquid thermal diffusivity, [m2/s]
C - liquid specific heat at constant pressure [J/kg/K]
C - constant for initial growth of stationary translating bubble
0
[m/s]
Coo -
constant for asymptotic growth of stationary bubble, [m/s ~]
c~ - constant for asymptotic growth of translating bubble, [m/s 3/2]
g - gravitational acceleration, [ m / s 2]
h - thickness of evaporating microlayer, [m]
k - liquid thermal diffusivity, [m2/s]
i - latent heat of vaporization, [J/kg]
o
Pa
_ vapour pressure of llght liquid, [Pa]
p~, - vapour pressure of heavy liquid, [Pal
328 D. Mma_lem, W. Zijl and S.J.D. van Stralen Vol. 4, No. 5

PV
total vapour pressure, [Pa]
heat flux density to bubble cap, [w/m 2]
qc -
% heat flux density to evaporating microlayer, [w/m 2]
R bubble radius, [m]
R bubble contact radius, [m]
C

Rd - bubble departure radius, [m]

t time; t = 0 at start of bubble growth, [s]

td - departure time, [s]

Ts - absolute saturation temperature, [K]
g - translation velocity of bubble, [m/s]
Z -- distance from liquid-liquid interface to bubble centre, [m]

Greek symbols
Pv I Pv 1
F (= ( T--~ ) /b ( T - ~ ) a ) factor denoting increase in vapour pres
sure, due to heavy component
dynamic viscosity of light liquid, [kg/ms]

OR - superheating of light liquid at bubble cap, temp. of vapour,[K]

0 - superheating of heavy liquid at liquid-liquid interface beneath
W
bubble, [K]

0oo --
initial uniform superheating, [K]
p liquid density, [kg/m 3]

Pv vapour density, [ k g / m 3 ]
T time at which bubble starts to cover a prescribed part of
heavy liquid, [s]

Subscripts

a light liquid phase

b heavy liquid phase
R bubble cap
W liquid-layer interface beneath the bubble, at the evaporating
microlayer

Superscripts

differentiation with respect to time, [l/s]

Vol. 4, No. 5 NLKIEATE BOILING OF A LIQUID-LIQUID INTERFACE 329

References

i. S.J.D. van Stralen, Parts I-II, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. ii, 1467-1512,
(1968).

2. J.R. Bragg, and J.W. Westwater. Heat Transf., 1970, 4th Int. Heat
Transfer Conf., Parls-Versailles, VI, B.7.1, (1970).

3. S.J.D. van Stralen, and R. Cole, Boilin 8 Phenomena, Hemisphere (Washington),

to be published, (1977).

4. V.G. Levich, Physicochemical Hydrodynamics, Prentice-Hall, Inc. N.H.,(1962).

5. K.B. Oldham, and J. Spanler, The Fractional Calculus, Academic Press, New
York and London, (1974).

6. S.C. Yao, and V.E. Schrock, J. Heat Trans., p. 120, (1976).

7. G. Birkhoff, Hydrodynamics, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, (1960).

8. V.I. Sabbotin, D.N. Sorokln, D.M. Orechkin, and A.P. Rydryavtsev, Israel
Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem, (1972).