Saturated Pool Boiling Enhancement by Means of an Electric Field

The effect exerted by an externally imposed electrostatic field on regime transitions in saturated pool boiling is treated in the paper. After introducing the equations governing the influence of the electric field on boiling, the EHD effect on bubble dynamics and interface stability in a two-phase fluid is briefly illustrated. The nucleate boiling region, the peak and minimum film boiling heat flux conditions and stable film boiling are separately dealt with, in order to better emphasize the influence of the electric field on the different features of the pool boiling process. The main theoretical and experimental results obtained by the different researchers and available in the open literature are critically reviewed, attempting to stress the more significant findings as well as the aspects still needing further research work.