Percolative scale-free behavior in the boiling crisis

Limiao Zhang, Jee Hyun Seong, Matteo Bucci

Published 2018-09-24Version 1

Experiments conducted with high-resolution infrared diagnostics in both pool and flow boiling conditions show that, at the boiling crisis, the distribution of the bubbles patch area on the boiling surface is scale-free. A simple percolation model elucidates and predicts how the scale-free behavior emerges from the near-wall stochastic interaction of bubbles. The model provides useful insights on how to engineer surfaces that delay the boiling crisis.