Temperature domains on a wire heater

It is demonstrated that nucleate and film boiling in three forms may coexist in the process of boiling on a wire heated by electric current at a preassigned mean temperature of the wire, these forms being a domain (wire segment) of film boiling on a conductor with "cold ends", a domain of nucleate boiling on a conductor with "hot ends", and a domain of equilibrium between nucleate and film boiling, at which one conductor end is maintained cold and the other end is maintained hot. The conditions of transition to boiling with domains are analyzed. A calculation technique is suggested, and all three domain branches are constructed. The stability of domain boiling to infinitely small deviations of the wire temperature is investigated. Comparison is made with the available experimental data.