Experimental study on pool boiling heat transfer in microgravity

In the present paper, pool boiling heat transfer of FC-72 on a plane plate used a quasi-steady heating method has been studied experimentally both in normal gravity on the ground and in microgravity aboard the Chinese recoverable satellite SJ-8. The influences of gravity level, pressure, and subcooling on heat transfer characteristics have been analyzed. It's found that the nucleate boiling will be enhanced with the increase of subcooling or pressure for the same pressure or subcooling in microgravity, and that CHF will also increase with the subcooling and/or pressure. The boiling curves in microgravity have much smaller slopes than that in normal gravity, and that CHFs are also quite lower in microgravity, which is no more than 40% of that in terrestrial condition.