Prediction of subcooled flow boiling characteristics using two-fluid Eulerian CFD model

The present study concerns a detailed analysis of flow boiling phenomena under high pressure systems using a two-fluid Eulerian approach provided by a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solver. For this purpose, a vertical heated pipe made of stainless steel with an internal diameter of 15.4 mm was considered as the modeled domain. Two different uniform heat fluxes and three saturation pressures were applied to the channel wall, whereas water mass flux of 900 kg/m2 s was considered for all simulation cases. The model was validated against a set of experimental data and results have indicated a promising use of the CFD technique for estimation of the wall temperature, the liquid bulk temperature and the location of the departure of nucleate boiling. Changes in factors applied in the modeling of the interfacial heat transfer coefficient and bubble departure frequency were suggested, allowing a better prediction of the void fraction along the heated channel. The commercial CFD solver FLUENT 14.5 was used for the model implementation.