ABSTRACT
Pool boiling occurs when a heater is submerged in a pool of initially stagnant liquid. When the surface temperature of the heater exceeds the saturation temperature of the liquid by a sufficient amount, vapor bubbles nucleate on the heater surface. The bubbles grow rapidly in the superheated liquid layer next to the surface until they depart and move out into the bulk liquid. The life of a single bubble may be summarized as occurring in the following phases: nucleation, initial growth, intermediate growth, asymptotic growth, possible collapse. The primary requirement for nucleation to occur or for a nucleus to subsist in a liquid is that the liquid be superheated. It is difficult to obtain accurate and reproducible data for boiling liquid metal, particularly when measuring incipient boiling superheats. Considerable attention has been given to the effect of preboiling conditions on the incipient boiling wall superheat of liquid metals.
