Numerical Investigation of Single Bubble Dynamics During Nucleate Boiling in Aqueous Surfactant Solutions

The dynamics of a single growing and departing bubble during nucleate boiling from a horizontal heated surface in an aqueous surfactant solution has been numerically simulated. The full Navier-Stokes equations together with the bulk transport and adsorption-desorption-controlled surfactant interfacial transport equations are solved. A PDE-based fast local level-set method is used to computationally capture the vapor-liquid interface, and the dynamic surface tension is modeled as a body force on the interface. A second-order projection method along with a third-order ENO (essentially non-oscillatory) scheme for differencing the convection terms are applied for solving the momentum equation. The time discretization is dealt with a high order Runge-Kutta method. The multigrid preconditioned conjugate method (MPCG) is employed to solve the projection, which has strongly discontinuous coefficients caused by the physical properties jump across the vapor-liquid interface. The results illustrate the altered bubble dynamics in aqueous surfactant solutions, and their role in enhancing heat transfer.