Boiling processes

Article By:

Juric, Damir George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia.

Last reviewed:2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.YB010221

The boiling process is used in numerous technological applications and is of particular economic importance in the power generation industry. The primary purpose of early industrial applications of boiling was to generate steam for transportation and power. Today's power industry still takes advantage of the high heat transfer rates typical of boiling to extract energy from solar, fossil, and nuclear fuels. Boiling is essential to all closed-loop power and refrigeration cycles. It is a crucial aspect of technologies such as modern chemical and distillation processes and thermal management of microelectronics systems. Designers of energy generation and propulsion systems for spacecraft must deal with the complexities and safety issues of handling low-boiling-point cryogenic fluids in the absence of gravity. The study of liquid-vapor flows in the microgravity environment, where buoyancy no longer plays a dominant role and bubbles do not rise, has proven to be a challenge. Despite the growing importance and the familiarity of boiling, the fundamental physical processes associated with the various regimes of boiling, bubble formation, and dynamics are still not completely understood.

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