Study of Active Nucleation Site Density in Subcooled Nucleate Pool Boiling

The active nucleation site density is an important parameter of nucleate boiling heat transfer model, but none of those theoretical models made by far has successfully predicted the active site density. A fractal model has recently been proposed by authors to describe the active site density in nucleate boiling. In order to study if the fractal model can be used in subcooled nucleate boiling, the active nucleation site densities of four stainless steel surfaces are predicted using the heat transfer model proposed by Judd and Hwang according to the nucleate boiling experiment data on different subcoolings. The predicted result indicates that the active nucleation site density curve is not affected by subcooling and agrees well with the fractal model by authors. The universality of the model is ulteriorly confirmed.