An Experimental Study of Boiling Heat Transfer and Quench Front Propagation Velocity During Quenching of a Cylinder Rod in Subcooled Water

In this study, a quenching experiment was conducted at atmospheric pressure to investigate the flow and heat-transfer characteristics of cylindrical rods made from SS, FeCrAl, and Zr-4 under various subcooling degrees (Δ T sub ). The inverse heat-conduction problem (IHCP) method and image-processing technique were utilized to determine the surface temperature and heat flux, vapor film thickness, and quench front propagation. The results show that smaller solid kρc p and larger Δ T sub result in relatively more efficient quenching boiling heat transfer, thinner vapor film thickness, and greater quench front propagation velocity. The quench front originates at the bottom of the test specimen and becomes progressively larger in velocity with time. It eventually converges with the downward-propagating quench front in the upper middle of the test specimen. Moreover, at the beginning of quench front propagation, the SS and FeCrAl test specimens have a constant velocity region. However, because the Zr-4 test specimen has a small kρc p , the velocities gradually increase from the onset of quench front generation. Furthermore, the measured average quench front velocities are consistent with the experimental datum from the literature. However, the predicted model proposed by Duffey underestimates the propagation velocity due to ignoring the cooling effect of film boiling.