Project No.

01

Project Title:

Nucleate Boiling of Nano-fluids

Submitted By:

Khalil Ahmad

Submitted To:

Dr. Hafiz M. Ali

Dated:

25-07-2014

Institute of space Technology Islamabad, Pakistan

Table of Contents
Description

Page #

1. Abstract

2. Introduction

3. Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer (Literature Review)

4. Experimental Setup

5. Conclusions and Recommendations

1. Refferences

1. Abstract
Pool boiling heat transfer using nanofluids (which are suspension of nano-sized particles in
base fluid) has been a subject of many investigations and incoherent results have been
reported in literature regarding the same. In the past, experiments were conducted in nucleate
boiling with varying parameters such as particle size, concentration, surface roughness etc.
and all sort of results ranging from heat transfer enhancement, deterioration and no effect
were reported. This work tries to segregate a survey on nucleate boiling of nanofluids with
respect to particle concentration. This is due to the fact that a major drift in heat transfer
behavior is observed at higher and lower particle concentration. But upon deep perusal it has
been found that deterioration in heat transfer coefficient are mainly observed at higher particle
concentrations (4-16% by weight) and enhancements mainly at lower particle concentrations
(0.32-1.25% by weight). Moreover, the relative size of the particle with respect to the surface
roughness of the heating surface seems to play an important role in understanding the boiling
behavior. Also, recent works have reported that change in surface wetting of the heating
surface due to nanofluids and the formation of a porous layer modifying nucleation site
density can be of importance in predicting nucleate boiling characteristics of nanofluids. In the
present paper, attempts are made to make systematic analysis of results in literature and try to
bring out a common understanding of the results in literature.

2. Introduction
Boiling is avery effective mode of heat transfer and because of this reason has wide
applicability in various industries. Many researchers worldwide have conducted very
systematic study of the basic mechanism of boiling. But, its physical mechanism still remains
too complex to be completely understood even for a common fluid like water. It is known to
depend mainly on surface heat flux, heater surface, and heater geometry. Also, it is known that
the inclusion of particles in a liquid alters the boiling characteristics. Yang and Maa (1984)
performed pool boiling experiments with alumina-water solid particle suspensions. They used
Al2O3 particles of sizes 50 nm, 300 nm and 1 m. They found that pool boiling performance is
greatly improved for low particle concentrations of 0.1-0.5% in nucleate pool boiling regime.
However, micron sized particle suspensions are known to cause problems of erosion and
clogging.
Suspensions of nanoparticles in common fluids, widely known as nanofluids, have created
considerable interest in recent times for their improved heat transfer properties. Pioneering
researchers at Argonne National Laboratory started experimenting with particles suspensions
to increase the thermal conductivity. They were extremely successful in their endeavor. They
as well as other researchers reported (Choi 1995; Eastman et al. 2001; Lee et al. 1999; Wang
et al.1999; Xuan and Li 2000) anomalous enhancement in thermal conductivity of suspensions
using nanoparticles.
However, it must be understood that thermal conductivity enhancement in nanofluids is only a
prerequisite and that it is necessary to find the single and two phase heat transfer
characteristics of these suspensions. The present paper will review the study of nucleate
boiling heat transfer characteristics of the same.

3. Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer at Higher Solid Particle

Concentrations:
An earlier work in nucleate boiling was by Das et al. (2003a) who investigated pool boiling
characteristics of Al2O3-H2O nanofluids on a cylindrical cartridge heater. The thrust of the
experiments was to compare the nucleate boiling parameters with that of pure water and thus
bring out the applications and limitations of nanofluids under the condition of phase change.
In their experiments stainless steel heaters of 20 mm diameter and 420 V, 2.5 KW rating was
used. Ther heater surface was machine drawn. They conducted experiments with high solid
particle concentrations of 4-16% by weight. In this work the nanofluids were neither electrostatically stabilized nor was surfactant used to stabilize the nanofluid. The higher the
concentration the more was the sedimentation and hence the boiling performance worsened.
The nanoparticles were found to sediment on the heater, thus making it smoother and
deteriorating the boiling performance (Fig. 1). This brings out the probable cause for the
deterioration in boiling characteristics. Due to the fact that the size of the nanoparticles (20-50
nm) are one to two orders of magnitude smaller than the roughness (0.38-1.12 m) of the
heating surface, the particles sit on the relatively uneven surface during boiling. These trapped
particles change the surface characteristics making it smoother. This causes the degradation of
the boiling characteristics.
Later on, the same authers (Das et al. 2003b) showed that nucleate boiling of nano-fluids on
narrow horizontal tubes (4 and 6.5 mm diameter) is qualitatively different from the large
diameter tubes due to difference in bubble sliding mechanism. It was found that at this range of
narrow tubes the deterioration in performance in boiling of nano-fluids is less compared to
large industrial tubes , which make it less susceptible to local overheating in convective
applications. For boiling on tubes of 4 mm and 6.5 mm diameter there seems to be less
importance of sliding mechanism for large bubbles, which are compareable to the size of
bubbles of boiling on 20 mm tube (Fig. 2).
This is because of the relatively small size of the tube, which produces a large curvature of the
surface, which does not allow the sliding larger bubbles.

A comprehensive study of the effect of dispersing aluminum oxide nanoparticles in water was
conducted by Gilberto M. Jr. (2005). He reported that the particles were quite stable in the
fluid. A raise in the pool boiling heat transfer was also identified.
Forrest et al. [10] tested surfaces nanostructuring with SiO2. Hydrophobic, hydrophilic and
super hydrophilic surfaces were created and poolboiling tests with water revealed CHF
enhancement in all surfaces. They suggested also that it is a mistake not to consider the
contact angle effect on the CHF, as it is the case in Zubers and Kutateladzes correlations. By
their study, the advancing and receding contact angles must be considered in CHF
correlations. Low
receding angle may be the reason for CHF increasing even in the hydrophobic surface, which
a contradictory result is obtained if only the static contact angle is considered.
Results may also vary according to experimental set-ups, base fluids and nanoparticles. For
example, ethanol and acetone, for their low boiling point, should be interesting alternatives
instead of water as base fluids, since would make easier to control fluid temperature and
achieve CHF without taking the risk of burnout of the test device. However, as shown by
Coursey and Kim [9] ethanol is a wetting liquid, with low contact angle, and nanoparticles
deposition in this case doesnt seems to increase wettability in order to substantially change
the CHF values. So, it might be reasonable to assume that nanoparticles deposition effects
decrease as low as base fluids contact angle is.
For its low price, the facility to handle and obtain, and usually interesting results obtained,
AL2O3is the most used nanoparticle in pool boiling tests. For these reasons, AL2O3
combined with water is the nanofluid used in this article, which has the purpose to present
CHF results and fully understand wettablitys influency over the heat transfer mechanisms.
The contact angle of Fe2O3deposition on copper surface was also measured.

Fig. 2 Water Boiling Curve

Experiment Set up

2.0 5.0

1.0 +/-

2
4

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Figure 3: Experiment Set up

Power
6- 2 inch rod glass
Variac (power stat)
7- Fluids (water, nanofluids)
Ammeter
8- Graduated cylinder
Supply board
9- Glass hanger
Hp multimeter
10- Nichrome wire

1. Conclusions and Recommendations

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From the above discussion, the following conclusions can be made:

1. The best model to use for the thermal conductivity of nanofluids is still not clear. However,
it does need more investigations.
2. In pool boiling experiment, the addition of nano-particles to the base fluids gives more
advantage in increasing the heat flux than heat transfer rate. It can be deduced that nanofluids
are more proper for heating and cooling applications.
3. In Pool boiling CHF, using nichrome wire heater in heating nanofluids and base fluid
(water) is recommended because of its high heat storing capacity. Nichrome wire will help in
drawing the different deposition of each particle. However, nichrome wire has one
disadvantage in deposition which is falling the nanoparticles off easy.

12. References

1. Das SK, Putra N, Roetzel W (2003a) Pool boiling characterization of nano-fluids. Int J
Heat Mass Transfer 46:851862
2. Das SK, Putra N, Roetzel W (2003b) Pool boiling nano-fluids on horizontal narrow
tubes. Int J Multiphase Flow 29:12371247
3. Jackson JE, Borgmeyer BV, Wilson CA, Cheng P, Bryan JE (2006) Characteristics of
nucleate boiling with gold nanoparticles in water. Proceedings of IMECE 2006,
Chicago, November 510
4. Kim SJ, Bang IC, Buongiorno J, Hu LW (2007) Surface wettability change during
pool boiling of nanofluids and its effect on critical heat flux. Int J Heat Mass Transfer
50:41054116
5. Prakash Narayan G, Anoop KB, Sateesh G, Das SK (2007b) Effect of surface
orientation on pool boiling heat transfer of nanoparticle suspensions. Int J Multiphase
Flow (Accepted for publication)
6. Wen D, Ding Y (2005) Experimental investigation into the pool boiling heat transfer of
aqueous based alumina nanofluids. J Nanopart Res 7:265274
7. Xuan Y, Li Q (2000) Heat transfer enhancement of nanofluids. Int J Heat Fluid Flow
21:5864
8. Yang YM, Maa JR (1984) Boiling of suspension of solid particles in water. Int J Heat
Mass Transfer 27:145147
9. J.S. Coursey, J. Kim, Nanofluid boiling: The effect of surface wettability, Int. J. Heat
Transfer and Flow1577-1585, 2008.
10. E. Forrest et al., Augmentation of nucleate boiling heat transfer and critical heat flux
using nanoparticle thin-film coatings, Int. J. Heat and Mass Transfer, 2009.