• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1518-1528
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• 1995

The deformation and departure processes of a bubble attached to the wall are studied experimentally and numerically to understand the phenomena of the nucleate boiling heat transfer enhancement under DC electric field. An air-bubble is injected in a dielectric liquid with different electric fields generated by changing three types of electrode system (Type 1,2 and 3) in the bubble generator. Experimental variables are the electric field strength and the distance and the shape of the electrodes under DC electric field. From experimental results, it is observed that the bubble under Dc electric field is elongated in the same direction as the electric field and the contact angle increases. For the parallel plate electrode which generates a uniform electric field, bubble departure volume doesn't seem to decrease within our experimental range. However, when a needle is raised a few millimeters from the lower electrode to make a nonuniform electric field around the needle, bubble departure volume decreases continuously with the increase of an applied voltage. The reduction effect of bubble departure volume is the most effective under a strong nonuniform electric field generated with Type 3. As the nonuniformity of the electric field due to the shape of a electrode increases, the terminal velocity and the acceleration of a bubble increase largely. For the comparison with visualization results, the deformation of a bubble attached to the electrode is carried out by a numerical method. Numerical results show good agreement qualitatively with experimental results.