Heat transfer characteristics of liquid nitrogen for cyclic heating

Bubble formation and the critical heat flux to transit to boiling state for cyclic heat inputs have been investigated using a platinum - 0.5at% cobalt (Pt-Co) wire and a silver sheathed Bi-2223 tape, in order to evaluate the cooling stability for superconducting AC power apparatus. Sinusoidal cyclic heat inputs ranging from 2 to 150 Hz were applied to a horizontal thin wir e immersed in a pool of saturated liquid nitrogen under normal atmospheric pressure. A high-speed video camera with a frame speed of 1000 frames/s has been used to observe bubble formation around the wire. The bubble frequenc y and the critical heat flux to transit to boiling state have been measured for each frequency. As a result, it has been found that the bubble frequen cy and the critical heat flux have depended on the heating frequency. The s ame experiment has been performed on a silver sheathed Bi-2223 tape, howeve r, the mechanism of bubble formation Is different. The dependence of the cr itical heat flux on the heating frequency has been also observed.