2024年3月27日、原子力国際専攻岡本研究室　Wen ZHOUさん （D2） が 「日本原子力学会　春の年会　2024」 において 「熱流動部会　優秀講演賞」 を受賞されました。

〈Name of award and short explanation about the award〉
Excellent Presentation Award
The 2023 Autumn Meeting of Atomic Energy Society of Japan (2023 Autumn Meeting AESJ) held in Nagoya, Japan on September 6-8, 2023, presented the “Excellent Presentation Award” to the researchers for their outstanding and attractive presentations in this meeting.

〈About awarded research〉
Subcooled flow boiling is a pivotal process prevalent in a myriad of scientific investigations and engineering applications, particularly in the realm of heat transfer system design and the foundational study of phase transition dynamics. The life cycle of bubbles, from nucleation and growth to departure and coalescence, along with their interaction with heat and mass transfer processes, critically influence the overall heat transfer efficiency. Nonetheless, the drastic transformations that bubbles undergo from inception to disappearance in subcooled flow boiling pose significant challenges for conventional bubble detection methods, particularly concerning condensing bubbles. In light of this, a cutting-edge AI-based method for condensing bubble detection and tracking in subcooled flow boiling is developed and validated in the present study. The present approach first identifies bubbles using object detection technique and subsequently tracks them across sequential frames. The proposed method demonstrates a robust capability of detecting approximately 90% of condensing bubbles within subcooled flow boiling. Furthermore, key thermal-hydraulic parameters in subcooled flow boiling such as aspect ratio, Sauter mean diameter, departure diameter, growth time, and bubble lifetime, were successfully extracted using the proposed AI-based model. Its results are compared with empirical correlations, and show a commendable consistency, demonstrating the viability and accuracy of the advanced AI-based model in analyzing the complex dynamics of subcooled flow boiling. The advantage of the newly developed method is preliminarily verified in the present study, and further validation is underway to corroborate its boarded application.

〈Your impression & future plan〉
Receiving the Excellent Presentation Award at the 2023 Autumn Meeting of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan in Nagoya is a profoundly exhilarating experience. First off, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors Prof. Miwa, Prof. Okamoto, and Prof. Okawa for their very patient guidance, support and encouragement during my research, this award is inseparable from their guidance. Looking forward, the study’s future endeavors will be extended on the segmentation of bubbles rather than solely their detection, which would provide a more nuanced understanding of bubble morphology and its influence on thermal hydraulic behavior. We believe that our work has the potential to significantly improve heat transfer system efficiencies and contribute to the sustainable development of energy systems. This award serves as a powerful catalyst, propelling us toward our next milestones with renewed passion and determination.