A new mechanism for pool boiling crisis, recoil instability and contact angle influence

In this paper a new mechanism is proposed to explain the occurrence of boil ing crisis. Indeed differing theories as to the effective cause of the crit ical heat flux (CHF) have been proposed by researchers in this held. Wide e xperimental data reveal numerous influencing parameters which are not inclu ded in any of the theoretical models proposed so far. The dry out mechanism observed for CHF is the clue of the analysis. The proposed mechanism is th en valid for all boiling categories, to our mind the crisis is the same and caused by the below described mechanism. The role of the contact angle is revealed to be determining which is in good agreement with experimental dat a. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.