Effect of Forced Convection Heat Transfer on Vapor Quality in Subcooled Flow Boiling

Abstract

A new theoretical model of vapor quality in subcooled flow boiling is proposed based on energy balance and well-known heat transfer correlations. This model takes into account the enhancement of forced convection heat transfer due to the presence of vapor. It is shown that the vapor quality predicted by our model is much less than that by a previous model for low pressure. However, the difference between the present and previous models decreases as the pressure increases, because (i) the increase of the convective heat transfer coefficient is weakened, and (ii) boiling heat transfer becomes dominant.