Bubble nucleation and growth on microstructured surfaces under microgravity

This paper investigates the dynamics of surface bubble formation and growth on heated surfaces in a microgravity environment, comparing the results to those on Earth. Experiments conducted on the International Space Station revealed significantly accelerated bubble nucleation and growth rates in microgravity, up to 30 times faster than on Earth. Thermofluidic simulations confirmed that the reduced influence of gravity-induced thermal convective flow in microgravity leads to localized heat at the substrate surface, resulting in quicker temperature rise and faster bubble nucleation and growth. The study also explores the effect of surface microstructure geometry, finding that finer microstructures enhance surface-to-liquid heat transfer, slowing down bubble nucleation.

Qiushi Zhang, Dongchuan Mo, Seunghyun Moon, Jiya Janowitz, Dan Ringle, David Mays, Andrew Diddle, Jason Rexroat, Eungkyu Lee, Tengfei Luo