Methods for promoting nucleate boiling
AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsKripa K. Varanasi, Christopher Jameson Love
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Method for promoting nucleate boiling on an interior surface of a vessel for boiling fluid in an industrial process, the method comprising the steps of: providing the vessel having the interior surface; controllably depositing a scale layer having a non-zero thickness onto the interior surface; monitoring an average thickness, x, of the deposit of the layer; and maintaining the average thickness, x, of the layer below a predetermined value or within a predetermined range of values during the operational life of the vessel, wherein x<k/h, wherein k is the effective thermal conductivity of the interior surface of the vessel and h is the heat transfer coefficient at the interior surface of the vessel in contact with the boiling fluid.
Claims29
A method for promoting nucleate boiling on an interior surface of a vessel for boiling a fluid in an industrial process, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing the vessel having the interior surface;
- controllably depositing a scale layer having a non-zero thickness onto the interior surface;
- monitoring an average thickness, x, of the layer;
- and
- maintaining the average thickness, x, of the layer below a predetermined value or within a predetermined range of values during the operational life of the vessel,
- wherein x<k/h, where k is the effective thermal conductivity of the interior surface of the vessel and h is the heat transfer coefficient at the interior surface of the vessel in contact with the boiling fluid.
A method for promoting nucleate boiling on an interior surface of a vessel for boiling a fluid in an industrial process, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing the vessel having a photoactive coating on the interior surface;
- allowing accumulation of a deposit of scale on the interior surface of the vessel up to a maximum average thickness, x, by contact of the interior surface with boiling fluid during normal operation of the vessel in the industrial process;
- and
- maintaining x below a predetermined value or within a predetermined range of valued for a substantial period of time during an operational life of the vessel by intermittent or continuous exposure of the photoactive coating to a light source, thereby breaking up scale deposits,
- wherein 0<x<k/h, where k is the effective thermal conductivity of the interior surface of the vessel and h is the heat transfer coefficient at the interior surface of the vessel in contact with the boiling fluid.
A method for promoting nucleate boiling on an interior surface of a vessel for boiling a fluid in an industrial process, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a vessel having an interior surface;
- and
- controllably depositing scale onto the interior a surface according to a predetermined pattern to effect boiling heat transfer when in contact with a boiling fluid,
- wherein the average thickness of the scale layer is x and 0<x<k/h, where k is the effective thermal conductivity of the interior surface of the vessel and h is the heat transfer coefficient at the interior surface of the vessel in contact with the boiling fluid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.