Relative stability of subcooled flow boiling on non-uniformly heated, inclined flat surface

This work elucidated the effects of liquid subcooling on the relative stability between nucleate boiling and film boiling on an inclined surface. At each heater’s orientation and liquid subcooling of 0–20 K, the co-existing heat fluxes were found, from which the equilibrium heat flux (qc) was identified. Experimental results indicate that qc increases with liquid subcooling, with the maximum qc occurring at rotating the surface by 90° from the horizontal position. In addition, equal-area criterion was adopted to properly interpret the experimental results. The shift in transition boiling curve correlated well with the change in relative stability when varying the heater orientation and liquid subcooling.