Boiling during high-velocity impact of water droplets on a hot stainless steel surface

High-velocity impact of water droplets (0.55 mm diameter) on a heated stainless steel surface was photographed. To achieve high impact velocities, the test surface was mounted on the rim of a rotating flywheel, giving linear velocities of up to 50 m s−1. Two cartridge heaters were inserted in the substrate and used to vary substrate temperature. A charge coupled device (CCD) video camera was used to photograph droplets impinging on the substrate. To photograph different stages of droplet impact, the ejection of a single droplet was synchronized with the position of the rotating flywheel and triggering of the camera. Substrate temperature was varied from 100 to 240 °C and the impact velocity from 10 to 30 m s−1. High-resolution photographs were taken of vapour bubbles nucleating sites inside the thin liquid films produced by spreading droplets. An analytical expression was derived for the amount of superheat required for vapour bubble nucleation as a function of the impact velocity. For a given surface roughness, the amount of superheat needed decreased with impact velocity, which agreed with experimental results. For a fixed impact velocity, the maximum extent of droplet spread increased with substrate temperature.