CORRELATION OF BUBBLE GROWTH RATE IN SUPERHEATED METHANOL

Boiling heat transfer is used most commonly in chemical and petrochemical industries either to generate vapor or because of its high efficiency in cooling. The high efficiency of boiling is contributed to three mechanisms namely the natural convection to the liquid, latent heat flow by micro-layer evaporation between bubbles and heat transfer surface, and the intense micro-convection flow adjacent to the heat transfer surface which induced by growth and detachment bubbles. All these mechanisms are strong function of bubble growth rate and its accurate prediction is crucial for the theoretical prediction of boiling heat transfer coefficient. Unfortunately, the proposed correlations are either simple with a limited range of validity or complicated. In the present work a unified model is presented by solving equation of energy which is expressed by In this article, first the fundamental approach of developing of presented model is discussed. Then the prediction of this model is compared with available experimental data for methanol and with those of better performing correlation from the literature. The absolute average error between the predicated and the experimental data is less than 20% for methanol, which confirms the applicability of the suggested model.