Radiation Physics and Engineering
A peer-reviewed journal published by K. N. Toosi University of Technology

Simulation of pool boiling for surfaces with various wettability

Document Type : Research Article

Author

Aref Rahimian

Reactor and Nuclear Safety Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, 1439951113, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22034/rpe.2025.477700.1242
Abstract
A boiling model, specifically the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) model, is utilized by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code to calculate the pool boiling behavior on surfaces with varying wettability characteristics. The RPI model is an accurate method for predicting the heat transfer coefficient of nucleate boiling, which is based on a component-by-component heat flux analysis. With some modifications, the RPI model can also be employed to simulate pool boiling heat transfer and CHF. To validate the modeling approach, the calculated heat flux for the pool boiling regime is compared to experimental data from the literature. The results indicate that the modified RPI model has a good ability to accurately predict the heat flux for the pool boiling stage. Furthermore, this modified RPI model demonstrates close agreement with the experimental results obtained for surfaces exhibiting diverse wettability properties. This suggests the model's capability to effectively capture the impact of surface wettability on pool boiling heat transfer. The successful application and validation of the modified RPI model for pool boiling simulations, particularly its ability to account for varying surface wettability characteristics, represents a valuable contribution to the existing knowledge on computational modeling of boiling heat transfer phenomena.

Highlights

  • The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) model, is used to simulate surfaces with different wettability
  • With some modifications, the RPI model be employed to simulate pool boiling heat transfer and CHF.
  • The modified RPI model has a good ability to accurately predict the heat flux for the pool boiling stage.
  • The critical heat flux results from the simulation showed an error of less than 5% compared to the experimental results.

Keywords

RPI model
Pool boiling
Wettability characteristics
Boiling heat transfer
CHF
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Radiation Physics and Engineering
Volume 6, Issue 3
Spring 2025
Pages 35-40

  • Receive Date 10 September 2024
  • Revise Date 06 January 2025
  • Accept Date 20 January 2025

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