Department of Textile Engineering

Fundamentals of Mechanical Engineering

ME 1121

Boiling & Condensation

By-
Dipayan Mondal
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, KUET, Khulna
Email: dip.kuet@gmail.com, dipkuet@me.kuet.ac.bd

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 BOILING

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 Introduction to Boiling(1)

Boiling is the rapid vaporization of a liquid, which

occurs when a liquid is heated to its boiling point, the
temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid
is equal to the pressure exerted on the liquid by the
surrounding environmental pressure.

When a liquid is in contact with a

surface maintained at a temperature
above the saturation temperature of the
liquid, boiling may occur and the heat
flux will depend on the temperature
difference between the surface and
saturated liquid temperature.

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 Introduction to Boiling (2)
Uses:
1. Boiling for water sterilization
Boiling can be used as a method of water disinfection but is only
advocated as an emergency water treatment method, or as a
method of portable water purification in rural or wilderness
settings without access to a potable water infrastructure.
2. Boiling in cooking
In cooking, boiling is the method of cooking food in boiling
water, or other water-based liquid such as stock or milk.
Boiling is a very harsh technique of cooking. Delicate foods such
as fish cannot be cooked in this fashion because the bubbles can
damage the food. Foods such as red meat, chicken, and root
vegetables can be cooked with this technique because of their
tough texture.

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 Types of Boiling

1. Nucleate boiling is a type of boiling that takes place when the surface
temperature is hotter than the saturated fluid temperature by a certain amount
but where the heat flux is below the critical heat flux.
2. Transition boiling may be defined as the unstable boiling, which occurs at
surface temperatures between the maximum attainable in nucleate and the
minimum attainable in film boiling.
3. Film boiling: If a surface heating the liquid is significantly hotter than the
liquid then film boiling will occur, where a thin layer of vapor, which has low
thermal conductivity, insulates the surface. This condition of a vapor film
insulating the surface from the liquid characterizes film boiling.
4. Pool boiling: When the heated surface is submerged below a free surface of
liquid, then the process is termed to as pool boiling.
5. Local Boiling: If the temperature of the liquid is below the saturation
temperature , the process is said to local boiling or sub-cooled boiling. i.e.
Liquid temperature<Liquid saturation temperature
6. Saturated or Bulk boiling: When the liquid temperature and saturation
temperature of liquid are same i.e. if the liquid is maintained at saturation
temperature, the process is said to saturated or bulk boiling.
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Pool Boiling Regimes/ Curve

OR

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 Pool Boiling Regimes/ Curve
Four boiling regimes are seen in the boiling curve. These are

1. Natural convection regime

2. Nucleate regime
3. Transition regime and
4. Film boiling regime

1. Natural convection boiling : Boiling starts when the fluid come into its saturation
temperature. But actually it needs some more temp. to boiling to be started. For
water this temperature is about 2 to 6 degrees. At that condition we start to see the
bubbles forming. In the natural convection boiling we start to see the bubbles to
form. Bubbles are an indispensable part of boiling. No needs telling that in this
region all the heat transfer is by natural convection currents. This stage happens
when the fluid is slightly superheated (metastable).
2. Nucleate boiling is a type of boiling that takes place when the surface temperature
is hotter than the saturated fluid temperature by a certain amount but where the heat
flux is below the critical heat flux. For water, as shown in the graph below, nucleate
boiling occurs when the surface temperature is higher than the saturation
temperature (TS) by between 4 °C (7.2 °F) to 30 °C (54 °F). The critical heat flux is
the peak on the curve between nucleate boiling and transition boiling.

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Pool Boiling Regimes/ Curve

OR

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 Pool Boiling Regimes/ Curve
This is the most desirable part of boiling heat transfer. In this part we can see the
regions. At this part bubbles start to form in different nucleation sites. These bubbles
are formed and in the first region they are most likely to collapse when they leave the
heater surface. These are isolated bubbles. There is a significant increase in the rate of
bubble formation. When bubbles leave the surface they collapse and the space vacated
is filled by the surrounding liquid and thus heat transfer is accelerated.
After taking a lot of heat the bubbles are big enough and they rise to the top surface.
These bubbles are energy movers. Thus we can see a significant increase in the boiling
curve with the excess temperature. In this region they form continuous columns of
bubbles. Here we find the highest heat flux or critical heat flux or the burning heat flux.
This point is also called the burning point or critical heat flux.

3. Transition boiling

It is a very much undesired and unstable part of boiling. In this stage we can see a huge
drop of heat flux. The reason behind this is the vapor blanket. Liquids take too much
heat and they form huge amount of vapor that cause the formation of vapor blanket or
vapor cover. Thus the surrounding liquids find it hard to get into the heater surface.
That’s why we see the significant heat flux drop. Here the heat transfer rate decreases.

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 Pool Boiling Regimes/ Curve
4. Film boiling

Here is the interesting part. Here we see that heat transfer increases. After
getting the critical heat flux and then a decrease in the transition boiling the
heater surface absorbs heat. And after sometimes it leaves the heat into the
liquid and the heat is very massive that radiation heat transfer comes in handy.
That’s why we see an increase in the heat flux. At the first part part of this
region we see a minimum flux and that is called Leidenfrost point or the
minimum heat flux point. In this part the burnout phenomenon can occur very
frequently.

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CONDENSATION

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 Condensation
 Condensation occurs when a
gas changes into a liquid and
also occurs when the
temperature of vapor
decreases. It is also very
crucial to the water cycle and
water vapor in the air turns
into a liquid water. The clouds
formed by condensation are
an intricate and critical
component of Earth's
environment. Condensation is
the opposite of evaporation.

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 Condensation
 Condensation is the opposite of
evaporation. Once the sun has heated
water to the point where it has become a
vapor in the air, this warm air then rises
high into the atmosphere where
temperatures are a lot colder. The air
cools down and the vapor turns back into
water (tiny droplets that together make
clouds).
 Condensation also happens right here on
the ground. The same thing is happening
when you pour out a glass of icy cold
water from the fridge on a hot day. Water
in the air that’s been heated up and turned
into vapor suddenly hits the cold surface
of the glass, cools down and turns back
from vapor into water droplets.

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 Types of Condensation
If a vapor strikes a surface that is at a temperature below the
corresponding saturation temperature, the vapor will immediately
condense into the liquid phase.
There are two types of condensation-
Film wise condensation:
If the condensation takes place continuously over the surface which is
kept cooled by some cooling process and the condensed liquid is
removed from the surface by the motion resulting from gravity, then the
condensing surface is usually covered with a thin layer of liquid, and the
situation is known as Film wise condensation
Drop wise condensation:
If traces of oil are present during the condensation of steam on a highly
polished surface, the film of condensate is broken into droplets, and the
situation is known as drop wise condensation.
If the liquid does not wet the surface, droplets are formed which fall
down the surface in some random fashion, this process is called drop
wise condensation.
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Difference between film wise condensation and drop wise condensation

SL No. Film wise condensation Drop wise condensation

Condensation takes place Liquid does not wet the surface, droplets
1 continuously are formed

Heat transfer are lower than the Heat transfer are higher than the film
drop wise condensation wise condensation
2

Heat transfer coefficient are lower Heat transfer coefficient are higher than
than the drop wise condensation the film wise condensation
3

It is easy to maintain It is extremely difficult to maintain

4

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 The End

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