Experimental analysis of nanofluid pool boiling heat transfer in copper bead packed porous layers

Abstract

Coupling the nanofluid as working fluid and the copper beads packed porous structure on heating surface were employed to enhance the pool boiling heat transfer by changing the fluid properties with the adjunction of nanoparticles in liquid and altering the heating surface with a bead porous layer. Due to the higher thermal conductivity, the copper beads served as an extended heating surface and the boiling nucleation sites rose, but the flow resistance increased. The CuO–water and SiO2–water nanofluids as well as the pure water were respectively employed as working fluids in the pool boiling experiments. Comparing with the base fluid of water, the higher thermal conductivity and lower surface tension occur in the nanofluids and those favor the boiling heat transfer, but the higher viscosity and density of nanofluids serve as deteriorative factors. So, the concentration region of the nanofluids should be chosen properly. The maximum relative error between the collected experimental data of the pure water on a flat surface and the theoretical prediction of pool boiling using the Rohsenow correlation was less than 12 %. The comparisons of the pool boiling heat transfer characteristics were also conducted between the pure water and the nanofluids respectively on the horizontal flat surface and on the heating surface packed with a copper bead porous layer. Besides, the boiling bubble generation, integration and departure have a great affect on the pool boiling and were recorded with a camera in the bead stacked porous structures at different heat flux.