Heat Transfer Coefficient - Thom Correlation

Thom Correlation

There exist simple fluid-specific correlations for heat transfer coefficient in boiling. The Thom correlation is for flow boiling of water (subcooled or saturated at pressures up to about 20 MPa) under conditions where the nucleate boiling contribution predominates over forced convection. This correlation is useful for rough estimation of expected temperature difference given the heat flux:

where:

is the wall temperature elevation above the saturation temperature, K

q is the heat flux, MW/m2

P is the pressure of water, MPa

Note that this empirical correlation is specific to the units given.