Convective Boiling Between 2D Plates: Shear Flow Influence on Bubble Growth, Detachment and Evolution

The experiment detailed in this paper presents results obtained on the nucleation, growth and detachment of HFE-7100 vapor bubbles confined in a two-dimensional plane created on an artificial nucleation site. The experiments were performed by varying the shear flow and the bubble nucleation rate through the heat flux supplied under normal gravity and microgravity. The distance between the plates was kept constant at 1 mm. The first results of these experiments are mainly related to the formation of a bubble on an isolated site with or without convection and to the associated heat transfer when confinement is imposed on a bubble. To this effect, we implemented an experimental device allowing the observation of the flow by means of both a visible video camera and an infrared video camera. Here, we present the first results obtained from the campaign performed in December 2007 concerning the influence of gravity on the bubble detachment diameter and the first images of 2D bubbles obtained in microgravity by means of an infrared camera.