Numerical study of a single bubble sliding on a downward facing heated surface

In this study, a complete three-dimensional numerical simulation of single bubble sliding on a downward facing heater surface is carried out. The continuity, momentum, and energy equations are solved using a finite-difference method. Level-set method is used to capture the liquid-vapor interface. The shape of the sliding bubble changes from a sphere, to an ellipsoid and finally to a bubble-cap. The wall heat flux downstream of the sliding bubble is much larger than that upstream of the bubble. This indicates that wall heat transfer is significantly enhanced by sliding motion of the bubble. The bubble shape and sliding distance predicted from numerical simulations is compared with data from experiments.