DYNAMIC SURFACE EFFECT AND NUCLEATE FLOW BOILING OF DILUTE SURFACTANT SOLUTIONS.

The dynamic surface effect of a dilute surfactant solution in the boiling process can be represented approximately by a function Y equals c(d sigma /dc)**2 where c is the concentration and sigma is the surface tension of this solution. In this work, nucleate boiling of dilute solutions of sodium lauryl sulfate was carried out in a flow boiling apparatus. It was observed that the addition of small amount of surfactant made the number of vapor bubbles larger and their size smaller. The heat transfer coefficient, h, was increased considerably. The similarity between the increment of h due to the addition of surfactant and Y curves indicates that the dynamic surface effect does play an important role in the boiling process of dilute surfactant solutions.