A Photographic study of subcooled flow boiling burnout at high heat flux and velocity

Abstract The present paper reports the results of a visualization study of the burnout in subcooled flow boiling of water, with square cross section annular geometry (formed by a central heater rod contained in a duct characterized by a square cross section). The coolant velocity is in the range 3–10 m/s. High speed movies of flow pattern in subcooled flow boiling of water from the onset of nucleate boiling up to physical burnout of the heater are recorded. From video images (single frames taken with a stroboscope light and an exposure time of 1 μs), the following general behaviour of vapour bubbles was observed: when the rate of bubble generation is increasing, with bubbles growing in the …