Investigations on heat transfer enhancement in pool boiling with water-CuO nano-fluids

Abstract

The main focus of the present work is to investigate Critical Heat Flux (CHF) enhancement using CuO nanofluid relative to CHF of pure water. To estimate the effect of nanoparticles on the CHF, pool boiling CHF values were measured for various volume concentrations of CuO nanofluid and compared with pure water. CHF enhancement of 130% was recorded at 0.2 % by volume of CuO nano-fluids. Surface roughness of the heater surface exposed to three measured heating cycles indicated surface modifications at different volume concentrations of nanofluid. SEM image of the heater surface revealed porous layer build up, which is thought to be the reason for CHF enhancement. Science Press and Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, CAS and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012.