A Critical Examination of the View that Nucleate Boiling Heat-Transfer Data Exhibit Power Law Behavior

Abstract

This article critically examines the widely accepted view that nucleate boiling heat-transfer data exhibit power law behavior, and that the ΔT exponent is approximately 3. The examination reveals that ● the power law view is based on induction methodology which is NOT rigorous ; ● the power law view is NOT supported by data in literature. Rigorous induction methodology reveals that nucleate boiling data generally exhibit LINEAR behavior, i. e., nucleate boiling data generally yield straight lines when drawn on a linear scale ; i. e. the ΔT exponent is generally unity.