Modeling and simulation of liquid microlayer formation and evaporation in nucleate boiling using computational fluid dynamics

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2017.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Guion, Alexandre Nicolas
Other Authors: Jacopo Buongiorno, Stéphane Zaleski, and Shahriar Afkhami.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112380
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author Guion, Alexandre Nicolas
author2 Jacopo Buongiorno, Stéphane Zaleski, and Shahriar Afkhami.
author_facet Jacopo Buongiorno, Stéphane Zaleski, and Shahriar Afkhami.
Guion, Alexandre Nicolas
author_sort Guion, Alexandre Nicolas
collection MIT
description Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2017.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1123802022-01-13T07:54:05Z Modeling and simulation of liquid microlayer formation and evaporation in nucleate boiling using computational fluid dynamics Guion, Alexandre Nicolas Jacopo Buongiorno, Stéphane Zaleski, and Shahriar Afkhami. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering Nuclear Science and Engineering. Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2017. This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-252). The transport of latent heat makes boiling one of the most efficient modes of heat transfer, allowing a wide range of systems to improve their thermal performance, from microelectronic devices to nuclear power plants. In particular, Boiling Water Reactors (BWR) use boiling as the primary mode of heat transfer in the reactor core to accommodate very high heat fluxes. In Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR) subcooled flow boiling can occur in hot sub-channels. As a bubble grows outside of a surface imperfection during nucleate boiling, viscous stresses at the wall can be strong enough to impede liquid motion and trap a thin liquid layer - referred to as microlayer, underneath the growing bubble. The contribution of microlayer evaporation to overall heat transfer and bubble growth can be large, in particular in the case of water1. In practice, numerical simulations of nucleate boiling resolve the macroscopic interface of the bubble and resort to subgrid models to account for the evaporation of the microlayer at the microscopic scale. The applicability of this subgrid modeling approach relies on the capacity to initialize the microlayer shape and extension, prior to its evaporation. However, existing models of microlayer formation are either physically incomplete2 or purely empirical3. In this work, we first confirm through a sensitivity study the need for accurate modeling of microlayer formation to initialize boiling simulations and to reproduce physical boiling dynamics (a). Then, we build the first generally applicable model for microlayer formation through direct computations of the hydrodynamics of bubble growth at the wall for a wide range of conditions and fluids, including water at 0.101MPa (lab experiments) and 15.5MPa (PWR), capillary numbers Ca [is element of] [0.001; 0.1], and contact angles [theta] [is element of] [10°; 90°] (b). In addition, we modify an existing experimental pool boiling setup to measure with unprecedented accuracy initial bubble growth rates needed to predict microlayer formation (c). Lastly, we develop a numerical procedure based on hydrodynamics theories to obtain mesh-independent results in moving contact line simulations for a wide range of contact angles and viscosity ratios (d). In particular, we use direct computations of the transition to a Landau-Levich-Derjaguin film in forced dewetting to inform the onset of microlayer formation in nucleate boiling. These contributions(a) (b) (c) (d) bridge a significant gap in our understanding of how boiling works and can be modeled at the microscopic scale, which represents a first step in designing surfaces with higher heat transfer performance and in building safer and more efficient energy systems. by Alexandre Nicolas Guion. Ph. D. 2017-12-05T16:25:22Z 2017-12-05T16:25:22Z 2017 2017 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112380 1011423203 eng MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 252 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Nuclear Science and Engineering.
Guion, Alexandre Nicolas
Modeling and simulation of liquid microlayer formation and evaporation in nucleate boiling using computational fluid dynamics
title Modeling and simulation of liquid microlayer formation and evaporation in nucleate boiling using computational fluid dynamics
title_full Modeling and simulation of liquid microlayer formation and evaporation in nucleate boiling using computational fluid dynamics
title_fullStr Modeling and simulation of liquid microlayer formation and evaporation in nucleate boiling using computational fluid dynamics
title_full_unstemmed Modeling and simulation of liquid microlayer formation and evaporation in nucleate boiling using computational fluid dynamics
title_short Modeling and simulation of liquid microlayer formation and evaporation in nucleate boiling using computational fluid dynamics
title_sort modeling and simulation of liquid microlayer formation and evaporation in nucleate boiling using computational fluid dynamics
topic Nuclear Science and Engineering.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112380
work_keys_str_mv AT guionalexandrenicolas modelingandsimulationofliquidmicrolayerformationandevaporationinnucleateboilingusingcomputationalfluiddynamics