Nucleate boiling in thin liquid films

Experimental results are presented for distilled water, ethyl alcohol and Freon-113 at atmospheric pressure with liquid levels ranging from pool depths of 25 mm down to thin films near 0.5 mm. Pool boiling data compare favorably with the Rohsenow correlation. Temperature measurements with thermocouples and liquid crystals show that liquid level has little effect on the heat transfer coefficient above a level of 5 mm. Below this level however, there is an increase of up to 50% in the heat transfer coefficient as the level is reduced, until dryout occurs. All the thin film data compare satisfactorily with the proposed correlation of Nishikawa.