Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2006
An experiment has been carried out in which air bubbles were caused to grow isothermally at a vertical wall between two closely spaced horizontal plates. The experiment gives an approximate representation in two dimensions for the growth of a vapour bubble at a wall under some conditions of subcooled boiling in zero gravity. Although the effect of gravity was virtually eliminated in the experiment, it was found that a bubble could still detach itself from the wall, apparently owing to the effects of surface tension and inertia.
Also, bubbles were seen to detach from a wall despite the presence of a slight gravity force directed to oppose such detachment.