Abstract
The heterogeneous boiling of liquids on hot surfaces, despite its importance, is an extremely complicated and murky phenomenon. It involves the random probabilistic nucleation of multiple bubbles whose growth, interaction, and departure, further, depends on processes involving heat transfer, fluid flow, and interfacial phenomena. This, and the random tumultuous nature of boiling makes experimental studies of the process extremely difficult. For achieving a phenomenological understanding of boiling, several researchers have relied on experiments involving artificially generated bubbles on solid surfaces. In this paper, we evaluate these methods of artificial bubble generation and explore how closely they replicate actual heterogeneous boiling conditions experienced by bubbles. Based on this, we assess the suitability of these methods for conducting phenomenological boiling studies, and identify their potential advantages and drawbacks.
