An Improved Treatment on the Apparent Contact Angle of a Single-Bubble in Consideration of Microlayer for Simulations of Nucleate Pool Boiling

Numerical simulation of single-bubble growth behavior during nucleate pool boiling was developed based on the volume of fluid method considering the thin liquid layer under the bubble (microlayer). However, the experimental values of apparent contact angle (the small region connecting the microlayer and bulk liquid) are crucial for the simulations. Reliance on experimental results limited the further application of such numerical method. In this study, a new method calculating the force balance, used to determine the interface shape near the apparent contact angle, was proposed instead of using the experimental values of the apparent contact angle. As a result, the good agreement was shown between the simulation results obtained based on the new and previous numerical methods. The simulation results were also in consistent with the experimental results. It can be concluded that the single-bubble behavior, including the heat transfer characteristics, during nucleate pool boiling can be simulated based on the proposed method.