ABSTRACT
Boiling is the prominent mechanism of heat transfer in high-temperature heat exchangers, refrigerators, and power plant boilers. With the change of heat ux from the heated surface, the mode of boiling shifts from isolated bubble growth (nucleate boiling) to bubble formation and detachment from a thin continuous ‰lm covering the heated surface (‰lm boiling). The continuous ‰lm is formed by the lateral merger of bubbles formed at the nucleation sites. The ‰lm so formed is unstable under the gravitational forces, and further growth of the instability leads to bubble formation at the crests of the wavy interface. The vapor bubbles that are formed detach from the continuous vapor ‰lm and buoy away.
