Predicting boiling heat transfer using computational fluid dynamics

A study has been undertaken to assess the capability of incorporating different empirical approaches in a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) environment for predicting boiling heat transfer. The application is for internal combustion (IC) engine cooling galleries and experimental validation work has been undertaken. Three different boiling heat transfer models are described, one based on the principle of superposition (Chen) and two based on the partial boiling method (Thom and Cipolla). Overall, the Thorn partial boiling approach was found to be the most representative of the three considered. However, numerous issues were found to be evident whatever approach was adopted and these are discussed in the paper. The partial boiling model was found to be the most simple to incorporate in the CFD model.