Critical heat flux

Critical heat flux (CHF) describes the thermal limit of a phenomenon where a phase change occurs during heating (such as bubbles forming on a metal surface used to heat water), which suddenly decreases the efficiency of heat transfer, thus causing localised overheating of the heating surface.

The critical heat flux for ignition is the lowest thermal load per unit area capable of initiating a combustion reaction on a given material (either flame or smoulder ignition).

When liquid coolant undergoes a change in phase due to the absorption of heat from a heated solid surface, a higher transfer rate occurs. The more efficient heat transfer from the heated surface (in the form of heat of vaporization plus sensible heat) and the motions of the bubbles (bubble-driven turbulence and convection) leads to rapid mixing of the fluid. Therefore, boiling heat transfer has played an important role in industrial heat transfer processes such as macroscopic heat transfer exchangers in nuclear and fossil power plants, and in microscopic heat transfer devices such as heat pipes and microchannels for cooling electronic chips.

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