Investigation of randomness, overlap and the interaction of bubbles forming at adjacent nucleation sites in pool boiling

A computer simulation of the experimental research carried out by Chopra (1 992) using the same boiling conditions and boiling surface data is reported in this paper. The interaction of the bubbles forming at adjacent sites wa s governed by the site seeding principle as postulated by Judd. A Gamma dis tribution was used to analyse the time elapsed between the formation of bub bles at different pairs of dominant and passive sites. The relationship of the Gamma shape parameter with dimensionless separation distance as well as the conditions determining the promotion or inhibition of bubble interacti on obtained through this simulation study closely resembles those observed experimentally by Chopra. The agreement between the results of this simulat ion study and the previously published experimental results provides suppor t for Judd's site seeding interaction mechanism. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.