Prediction of incipient flow boiling from a uniformly heated surface

This study was undertaken to investigate the phenomenon of liquid superheat during incipient boiling in a uniformly heated forced convection channel. Experimental data were obtained using Freon 11 as the test medium. Based on existing theories, an analytical method was developed for predicting the point of termination of nucleate boiling, observed during a decreasing heat flux process with a nucleation activated surface. The method may also be used to predict the point of boiling incipience, observed during an increasing heat flux process with a non-activated surface; this point does not appear to have been treated analytically in previous work. It can be shown that some of the existing models are special cases of the present formulation.