The effect of nanoparticle type and nanoparticle mass fraction on heat transfer enhancement in pool boiling

Abstract

Determining the heat transfer performance with nanofluids is of cardinal importance in the utilization of nanofluids in thermal systems. This study presents an experimental investigation on nucleate pool boiling heat transfer of TiO2 nanoparticles/water and CuO nanoparticles/water nanofluids on a flat heater plate and aims to reveal the effect of mass fraction of nanoparticles in these nanofluids for attaining the maximum enhancement in pool boiling heat transfer. The effect of mass fraction on boiling heat transfer characteristics was studied for mass fractions varying from 0.001% to 0.2% for the heat flux range between 48.7 and 134.9 kW/m2. The experimental results showed that the heat transfer performance was improved when TiO2 nanoparticles were added to pure water, as base fluid. However, the amount of enhancement was highly dependent on mass fraction. It was realized that the lowest mass fraction (0.001%), namely the dilute TiO2 nanoparticles/water nanofluid, has the largest enhancement (around 15%). A further increase in mass fraction still augments heat transfer compared to pure water, however, the amount of enhancement decreased with mass fraction. Furthermore, the performed visualization showed that the addition of nanoparticles into the base fluid, increased the number of nucleation sites, and the bubbles had a more spherical shape along with a decrease in their size. For CuO/water nanofluids, heat transfer was enhanced at mass fractions larger than 0.001%. This enhancement could be more than 35% for the mass fraction of 0.2 wt.%. This study clearly indicates that the nanoparticle mass fraction corresponding to the best performance is highly dependent on the type of nanoparticle.