Review on pressure drop oscillations in boiling systems

Boiling flow instabilities are present in several heat exchanging systems. Pressure drop oscillations are low-frequency oscillations (periods larger than the residence time of a particle in the system) in pressure and mass flow rate. In addition to performance degradation and problems of system control, flow rate oscillations may induce oscillations in wall temperature which can lead to thermal fatigue and breakage of the equipment. The objective of this review is to summarize all the research done on pressure drop instabilities, what has been done and what still needs to be done. Several issues that still need to be addressed in the modeling and experimental fields are introduced and discussed.