A Computational Approach to Study Heat Transfer Enhancement in Film Boiling due to the Addition of Surfactants

Two-phase flows involving phase change are ubiquitous in a diverse range of scientific and technological applications. There has been great recent interest in the enhancement of boiling heat transfer processes by means of additives such as surfactants. Surfactants can influence boiling through convection currents in the bulk fluids as a result of changes in the surface tension caused by local surfactant concentration due their adsorption/desorption from the bulk regions. This can result in changes in bubble release patterns and higher heat transfer rates if such changes lead to higher rate of vapor formation. We intend to study this effect in the context of film boiling. Our computational approach augments the CLSVOF method with bulk energy and diffusion equations along with a phase change model and an interface surfactant model. The challenge here is to accurately calculate the tangential gradients of the interfacial surfactant concentration in the presence of discontinuous bulk concentration gradients near the interface. We discuss a simplified model in which the interfacial surfactant concentration is always in equilibrium with the changing bulk concentrations and then present validation results to assess the accuracy of this approach. Finally, initial studies of surfactant enhanced film boiling will be presented and interpreted.