A Preliminary Investigation of Three-Phase Homogeneous Boiling

Nuclear energy's direct and hidden carbon footprint, including manufacturing and construction emissions, is lower than wind and solar. However, nuclear power plants require frequent and lengthy maintenance operations during which the plants’ auxiliary fossil-fuel generators support the grid. Such maintenance is costly. In addition, data indicates increased air pollution during such nuclear outages; thus, shortening such outages is financially and environmentally crucial. One very time-consuming maintenance procedure is de-icing the plant's ice condensers. The authors have developed a robot-controlled laser-based technology to carry out the de-icing task remotely and more efficiently using highly intensive radiation. Throughout this technology development effort, including testing its effectiveness in de-icing, a fascinating phenomenon was discovered. Water film atop melting ice was observed to boil homogeneously without contact with any superheated solid surface. This homogeneous boiling within melting ice was induced via radiation at a 10.6-micron wavelength and required a power intensity much lower than the values reported in the literature for thermocavitation in liquid water. This short article showcases this phenomenon, unprecedented in existing literature, through some preliminary images captured experimentally. The article also argues potential reasons for the reduced power intensity requirement of thermocavitation in melting ice versus a pool of liquid water.