Resuspension of deposited nanoparticles during pool boiling

Abstract

The resuspension of deposited nanoparticles within a boiling fluid is a nanoparticle behavior that may mitigate or even avoid the degradation of nanofluids, which is of great significance to the long-lasting heat transfer enhancement of nanofluids. In this study, the nanoparticle resuspension behavior during pool boiling was investigated experimentally and theoretically. Visualized pool boiling experiments were conducted for the nanoparticle-deposited surfaces which were prepared by boiling nanofluids. Various methods were employed to capture the resuspension phenomenon and characterize the morphology of nanoparticle deposition layer. The nanoparticle resuspension ratio was measured for various boiling durations, deposition area densities, and heat fluxes to elucidate the effects of these factors on the resuspension behavior. It was found that a part of deposited nanoparticles were resuspended to the bulk of the boiling liquid and then migrated with the internal flow during pool boiling, and the porous structure of nanoparticle deposition layer played a key role in the occurrence of resuspension. The measurement showed that heat flux was a main influential factor, and increasing heat flux can lead to a dramatical increase of resuspension ratio. A semi-theoretical model was developed to predict the resuspension ratio, which agreed well with the experimental results.