Thermal interactions between nucleation sites and the solid wall during pool boiling of a pure fluid: A review

This paper reviews the various effects of the coupling between thermal conduction within a heated wall and the growth of vapor bubbles in saturated pure liquids. In a first part, numerical and experimental investigations of single-site nucleation coupled with solid conduction within the wall are reviewed. The numerical investigations demonstrate that the wall temperature drop induced by bubble nucleation is significantly increased when the wall thermal diffusivity is decreased. Furthermore, bubble generation appears to be greatly inhibited by a reduction of the wall diffusivity. Concurrently, newly developed experimental methods provide promising insights on solid/fluid coupling in single site nucleation. In particular, several studies highlight the link between a sustained temperature drop beneath a growing bubble and the vaporization of a liquid micro-layer deposited during bubble growth. Finally, conclusions raised by the existing literature in various configurations of multi-site boiling are detailed and compared. On one hand, the radii of thermal influence of a bubble inferred by these studies are comparable (between 1.5 and 3 times the bubble diameter). On the other hand, it is still difficult to provide a general criterion predicting this interaction range as a function of the wall thermal properties. • Thermal coupling effects between growing vapor bubbles and the solid wall are reviewed. • Low diffusivity walls can undergo significant temperature drops during bubble nucleation. • Vapor mass flow rate produced on a nucleation site is affected by the wall material. • Recent experimental methods gave new insights on solid/fluid coupling in single site nucleation. • Interactions between sites through the wall have been observed in several configurations.