Bubble jet flow interaction during pool boiling of subcooled water on horizontal thin wires

Both visual experiments and numerical analyses were conducted to investigate the interaction between bubble jet flows during pool boiling of subcooled water on horizontal thin wires. The bubble jet flows nearby attracted each other, and they can combine into one jet flow under strong interaction. As the adjacent bubble departs, the bubble jet flow would experience an unsteady evolution process with the jet flow interaction weakening. Since the unsymmetrical thermocapillary force at the bubble interface was induced by the adjacent bubble as a cold source, the bubble jet flow would trend to the adjacent bubble, and the mechanism based on thermocapillary force and cold source can explain the bubble jet flow interaction very well. The steady bubble jet flow interaction phenomena were further simulated by laminar model, and the calculated jet flow interaction phenomena were in a good agreement with the experimental results.