Comparison of water boiling models against recent experimental data, with special emphasis on the bubble ebullition cycle

Using recently collected data which was measured with state-of-the-art techniques, models for nucleation site density, bubble departure diameter, and nucleation frequency were compared against the acquired data. The particular focus of this work is on the ebullition cycle and associated bubble nucleation frequency, looking at the models proposed by M.Z. Podowski. In my analysis, I took the average values for the growth and dwell times directly from the data, rather than from the models for those parameters. The results of those investigations showed that the basic principles approach for considering the parameters of the ebullition cycle held up pretty well with the experimental data, with Ti(t), the temperature curve during the ebullition cycle, corresponding remarkably well with the data curves. However, one parameter which was always overvalued was T(0*) - the predicted temperature of the start of the dwell phase. It was generally 1-2 degrees Celsius higher than the experimental value. For a fully rigorous analysis of the ebullition models in future works, it is recommended that all parameters be predicted rather than pulled from the data, particularly of the growth and dwell times.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Virgen, Matthew Miguel

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jacopo Buongiorno and Michael Z. Podowski.

• Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76939

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/76939