Shape effects of heaters in nanofluid pool boiling

Abstract

Paper presented at the 7th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Turkey, 19-21 July, 2010.

This paper deals with a study of enhanced critical heat flux (CHF) and burnout heat flux (BHF) in pool boiling of water with suspended silica nanoparticles using Nichrome wires and ribbons. Previously our group and other researchers have reported three-digit percentage increase in critical heat flux in silica nanofluids. This study investigates the effect of various heater surface dimensions and cross-sectional shapes on pool boiling heat transfer characteristics of water and water-based nanofluids. Our data suggest that the CHF and BHF decrease as heater surface area increases. For concentrations from 0.1vol% to 2vol%, various properties such as viscosity, pH, and surface tension as well as silica deposition on surface and glowing length of ribbon are measured in order to study the possible factors in the heat transfer behavior of nanofluids. The deposition of the particles on the wire allows high heat transfer through inter-agglomerate pores, resulting in a nearly 3-fold increase in burnout heat flux at very low concentrations. As the concentration is increased, the CHF and BHF each decrease prior to increasing again at higher concentrations. Results show a maximum of 270% CHF enhancement for ribbon-type heaters. A trend is presented for the effect of concentration on both CHF and BHF, and visualization of boiling experiments aids with determination of bubble sizes, nucleation, and flow regimes.