Experimental Evidence of the Vapor Recoil Mechanism in the Boiling Crisis

TL;DR

This study provides experimental evidence supporting the vapor recoil mechanism as the cause of the boiling crisis near the critical point of hydrogen, challenging classical explanations and advancing understanding of boiling phenomena.

Contribution

The paper presents experimental data near the critical point of hydrogen that confirms the vapor recoil mechanism as the primary cause of boiling crisis.

Findings

Power law behavior of critical heat flux observed

Boiling crisis dynamics match vapor recoil predictions

Disagreement with classical vapor column mechanism

Abstract

Boiling crisis experiments are carried out in the vicinity of the liquid-gas critical point of H2. A magnetic gravity compensation setup is used to enable nucleate boiling at near critical pressure. The measurements of the critical heat flux that defines the threshold for the boiling crisis are carried out as a function of the distance from the critical point. The obtained power law behavior and the boiling crisis dynamics agree with the predictions of the vapor recoil mechanism and disagree with the classical vapor column mechanism.