Mathematics Colloquium
YONGSHENG LIAN
Mechanical Engineering, University of Louisville
Title: Investigation of Nucleate Pool Boiling in Earth Gravity and Microgravity
Date: Friday, November 16, 2018
Place and Time: Room 101, Love Building, 3:35-4:25 pm
Refreshments: Room 204, Love Building, 3:00 pm
Abstract. Nucleate pool boiling has widespread applications in industry due to its efficient high heat transfer rates. It has also been used in space exploration for mission critical thermal management and life support fluids and power conversion systems. In microgravity, the nucleate boiling phenomena and the heat transfer characteristics are significantly different from those in terrestrial gravity. To further understand the effect of gravity on nucleate boiling, NASA recently conducted nucleate pool boiling experiments on the International Space Station (ISS). Both vapor bubble dynamics and heat transfer characteristics were investigated. The experimental data has been included in the Physical Sciences Informatics (PSI) system. The data can be utilized to develop new analyses and scientific insights in nucleate pool boiling. To have a thorough understanding of nucleate pool boiling, we developed and validate a nucleate pool boiling simulation tool. The simulation tool is used to model nucleate pool boiling in both earth gravity and microgravity. Our simulation shows the numerical results match the experimental results. A theoretical model is also proposed to predict the bubble growth and departure time.