EHD Effects in Single-Bubble Formation in the Nucleate Boiling Regime

In the nucleate boiling regime, when critical heat flux (CHF) is reached vapor formation prevents rewetting of the surface to maintain the maximum heat flux. Vapor formation can either slow drop evaporation due to lowering the surface heat flux, or result in a boiling crisis, both scenarios that are counterproductive or dangerous in many industrial boiling applications such as steam power generation. Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) effects have been shown to interact with liquids approaching CHF, potentially allowing an increase of the CHF, but understanding of the microscopic phenomena of the EHD and fluid interaction is still being developed. Our study investigates the effect of an applied electric field on bubble nucleation. By developing a theoretical model that simultaneously incorporates thermal and electric components in the fluid model. Building on previous modeling of single bubble nucleation based on a boiling chamber using laser-spot heating to initiate bubble growth, we will compare the EHD boiling model developed against experimental results of applying a static electric field to controlled bubble nucleation.