Subcooled Nucleate Boiling of Alumina Nanofluid With/Without n-Butanol as Surfactant

Author(s):  
Leping Zhou ◽  
Longting Wei ◽  
Xiaoze Du

Nucleate boiling process in nanofluids is important because of its potential in enhanced heat transfer. However, it is difficult to observe the boiling phenomenon due to the indistinct image. In this investigation, stable nanofluids was prepared by α-Al2O3 nanoparticles, 30 nm in diameter, and ultrapure water. The bubble behaviors in water were observed by high-speed CCD camera. Unique bubble sweeping phenomenon, existing in the upper and/or lower part of the heated wire, emerged due to the existence of nanoparticles. The experiment shows that the bubble-top jet flow phenomenon only exists when the small bubble returned to the heated surface, which demonstrates that it was the vertical Marangoni convection along the bubble interface that induced the jet flow. Meanwhile, flocculent clustering of nanoparticles can be observed to swirl at the bubble-bottom for low-concentration nanofluid, when the heat flux was relatively small. The SEM images of the nanoparticle deposition layers indicated increased thermocapillarity, but it seemed to delay the detachment of small bubbles from the heated surface. While n-butanol was included as surfactant, it promoted the nanoparticle deposition for low heat flux condition. The bubble behaviors were consistent with those of pure fluids and no bubble circling phenomenon was observed. The boiling curves were then depicted for alumina nanofluid with or without n-butanol. The boiling heat transfer in water was enhanced with increasing nanoparticle concentration. The boiling curves shifted right when increased the surfactant concentration in the nanofluid. It appeared that the surfactant-induced inhibited bubble growth and enhanced nanoparticle clustering in the near-wall region were the main reason for the shifting.

Author(s):  
Leping Zhou ◽  
Yuanyuan Li ◽  
Longting Wei ◽  
Xiaoze Du

Jet flow phenomenon is important in enhanced nucleate boiling heat transfer processes and applications. When heater sizes scale down, jet flow can be observed due to the Marangoni convection around bubbles staying on microscale heated surface. In this paper, two fluids were employed for comparing and demonstrating the effect of Marangoni convection on bubble behaviors on micro heating wire. One was ultrapure water and the other was aqueous n-butanol solution, a self-rewetting fluid. Bubble-top jet flow for water and multi-jet flows for n-butanol solution were observed around a platinum micro heating wire by high speed CCD camera. Corresponding numerical simulation proved that it is the Marangoni convection that attracts the sub-cooled water to flow from the super-heated microlayer at the bottom to the top of a stationary bubble. For n-butanol solution, however, the Marangoni convection can induce it to flow oppositely, which causes the subcooled solution to flow onto the heated surface. The simulation for the solution is in good agreement with the experiment where the subcooled liquid nears the bubble-top flow towards the bottom of bubble or the heated surface and hence the multi-jet flows occur. The multi-jet flows can sustain for a long period and cause transient chaos at the super-heated thin liquid layer near the heated surface. The temperature around the bubble presented sharp temperature gradient and the velocity in the near-wall region is almost vertical to the wall. The experimental and numerical studies on the effect of surface tension and thus Marangoni convection are crucial to the mechanisms of subcooled nucleate boiling of fluids.


Author(s):  
Helene A. Krenitsky ◽  
Evan T. Hurlburt ◽  
Larry B. Fore ◽  
Paul T. McKeown ◽  
Richard B. Williams

A fundamental departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) flow visualization experiment was designed to obtain a better understanding of flow boiling by visually capturing the mechanisms leading up to and including DNB for subcooled vertical flow boiling. At the critical heat flux (CHF) the heat transfer coefficient between the wall and fluid is greatly reduced, entering an inefficient heat transfer region that can cause a rapid increase in wall temperature. Most of the visual data on DNB in the open literature comes from experiments conducted with refrigerants or with water at relatively low pressure. One goal of this test was to capture high-quality photographs leading up to DNB for water at higher pressures, higher mass fluxes, and larger inlet subcooling than most of the data in the open literature. The fundamental DNB experiment consisted of three different run stages: incipient boiling, subcooled boiling, and CHF runs, which were intended to capture the behavior leading up to and including a departure from nucleate boiling crisis. At high heat flux conditions, the steep temperature and refractive-index gradients in the water near the wall act like lenses and bend the light away from the wall, which is the region of interest for discerning the DNB mechanism. By frosting the inner surface of the window on the light source side, the nearly collimated light was diffused as it entered the test section and enabled better visualization near the wall region. A high speed camera was used in testing. A typical run consisted of a 2 second image data set, with a resolution of 512 by 160 pixels, at 10,000 frames per second. Three excursive CHF runs were achieved, the last of which melted the test section. The trigger function on the camera captured images from before and after the power trip for the last CHF run. A trend can be seen of an increasing two-phase friction factor with power that begins to increase more rapidly at test section powers greater than 64.5kW. The 1995 Groenevel, et al. (1996) look-up table proved to be a good estimate of the heat flux at DNB.


1959 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Siegel ◽  
C. Usiskin

A photographic study was made to determine the qualitative effect of zero gravity on the mechanism of boiling heat transfer. The experimental equipment included a container for boiling water and a high-speed motion-picture camera. To eliminate the influence of gravity, these were mounted on a platform which was allowed to fall freely approximately 8 ft. During the free fall, photographs were taken of boiling from various surface configurations such as electrically heated horizontal and vertical ribbons. The heat flux was varied to produce conditions from moderate nucleate boiling to burnout. The results indicate that gravity plays a considerable role in the boiling process, especially in connection with the motion of vapor within the liquid.


2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aritra Sur ◽  
Yi Lu ◽  
Carmen Pascente ◽  
Paul Ruchhoeft

Nucleate boiling heat transfer depends on various aspects of the bubble ebullition, such as the bubble nucleation, growth and departure. In this work, a synchronized high-speed optical imaging and infrared (IR) thermography approach was employed to study the ebullition process of a single bubble on a hydrophilic surface. The boiling experiments were conducted at saturated temperature and atmospheric pressure conditions. De-ionized (DI) water was used as the working fluid. The boiling device was made of a 385-um thick silicon wafer. A thin film heater was deposited on one side, and the other side was used as the boiling surface. The onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) occurs at a wall superheat of ΔTsup= 12 °C and an applied heat flux of q" = 35.9 kW/m2. The evolution of the wall heat flux distribution was obtained from the IR temperature measurements, which clearly depicts the existence of the microlayer near the three-phase contact line of the nucleate bubble. The results suggest that, during the bubble growth stage, the evaporation in the microlayer region contributes dominantly to the nucleate boiling heat transfer; however, once the bubble starts to depart from the boiling surface, the microlayer quickly vanishes, and the transient conduction and the microconvection become the prevailing heat transfer mechanisms.


Author(s):  
Chen Li ◽  
G. P. Peterson

The evaporation and pool boiling on micro porous coated surfaces have been shown to provide among the highest heat transfer rates achievable from any type of surfaces. The heat transfer modes in these surfaces, present a number of interesting similarities and also, some fundamental differences, which are the result of the liquid supply methods to the heated surface. For the evaporation from porous coated surfaces, the liquid return to the heated surface is assisted by the capillary pressure at the liquid-vapor interface; while for pool boiling, gravity is the principal driving force that rewets the surface. In order to better understand the physical phenomena that governs the flow behavior of both the liquid and vapor phases, and the heat transfer process inside the porous media, comprehensive comparisons between these return mechanisms and their respective characteristics, and the performance and the critical heat flux (CHF) for each have been made, based on similar physical situations. These systematic comparisons illustrate that at a lower heat flux, the evaporation and pool boiling curves are almost identical due to the similar heat transfer modes, i.e., convection and nucleate boiling. While with further increases in heat flux, the heat transfer performance of the evaporation on micro porous media is generally superior to pool boiling on an identical surface. This shift is believed to be due to the fact that for evaporation on micro porous media, the heat transfer mode is dominated by the film evaporation, while in pool boiling, it is principally the result of fully developed nucleate boiling. It was also observed that the impact of the effective thermal conductivity of the porous coating on pool boiling performance is larger than for evaporation heat transfer on the identical micro porous coated surfaces. In general, the experimental data indicated that the CHF for evaporation heat transfer is much higher than for pool boiling on the same surfaces. The mechanism of CHF for evaporation on porous coated surfaces is believed to be the capillary limit; while for pool boiling the limit is the result of the hydrodynamic instabilities. This difference in mechanisms is clearly demonstrated by the experimental observations, where initially, the dry out process of the porous coated surfaces during evaporation is gradual, while for pool boiling; the entire surface reaches dry out in a very short time. In addition, the sensitivity of the CHF to the thickness of the porous coatings at a constant volumetric porosity and pore size, as well as the various optimal volumetric porosity of the CHF at a given thickness, are clearly the results of the differences induced by the various CHF mechanisms.


Author(s):  
J. Torres ◽  
A. Perdones ◽  
A. Garcia ◽  
F. J. Diez

Thermal control is a major constraint in spacecraft development as increased demand on electronics performance requires large heat dissipation from smaller surfaces which has led to increased challenges for thermal control. Spray cooling has a great amount of application in industrial processes as a heat removal method. It is thought to be the future in thermal management systems in space because of its capability for ‘close’ and accurate control of heat removal. Spray cooling is based on phase change heat transfer generating high heat transfer rates for low superheats. This last term is used to describe the difference in temperature between the heated surface and the cooling fluid. When the temperature of the surface to be cooled rises above the saturation temperature of the fluid splashed to the surface, a phase change occurs at the solid liquid interface during the boiling regime. However, the most interesting phase (regime) is the nucleating boiling where the critical heat flux, CHF, is reached. The CHF is then achieved due to the vapor generation is such as great that the liquid cannot still be in contact with the surface. Thus the heat is transferred through the vapor if there is not enough cold fluid. The thermal conductivity of vapor is lower and so the efficient of the cooling process. This turns out in a decrease on heat flux. Nowadays it is being taken more into account nanofluids as a technique capable of enhancing heat transfer. Nanofluids, a mix of nano-size particles in a base fluid, have been found to have a very high thermal conductivity as compared to the base fluid. In You et al., 2003; Kim et al., 2004a; Moreno et al., 2005 water was used with various Al2O3 particle concentration in a flat plate nucleate pool boiling system. They came across with no change in the heat transfer coefficient but a dramatic enhancement in CHF. They also found that high concentrations can degrade nucleate boiling. The aim of this project is study the effects of spray cooling with suspended nano-particles as an enhanced method for heat transfer removal. The working fluid was water with different concentrations of alumina-oxide particles added. The alumina oxide particles were supplied by Nanophase Technologies (Nano Tek® Alumina Oxide AL-01000-003-025) which had a mean diameter of 60 nm. Three different concentrations were used and the following: .5 g/L, 1 g/L, 2 g/L. Since clumping of particles can affect the heat transfer properties of the droplets, the solution was placed on inside an ultrasonic bath and left there for at least 24 hrs and immediately used in the experiments. Two nozzles were used in this experiment to study a wide range of sauter diameter of droplets. The experiment was carried out using three experimental techniques which looked into different characteristics of spray cooling. In the first mode, the fluid was sprayed onto a copper block heater surface while it was imaged with a high speed camera and synchronized with a high speed Nd-YAG laser. 9 thermocouples were positioned inside the copper block heater, as seen on Figure 1, to measure critical heat flux, while a camera was used to record different impact properties and the influence of nano-particles. Some of these properties were pool buildup size, spread, and duration of pool. For the second imaging technique, the spray on the heated surface was also considered to be an impinging jet, so to visualize the flow of this jet and how the heated surface affected it, PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) was used in the study. A third imaging technique was used to study the droplet behavior when in contact with a heated surface. A transparent glass heater made of aluminum silicate glass and coated with an ITO (indium tin oxide) film was used as the heater. The size of the drops had an average diameter of 2.38 mm. When compared to the copper block study, this method allows images to be taken from directly below the clear glass heater. Furthermore, these images allow for a clear edge detection of drops as they spread on the surface and what characteristics they develop when the droplets have different concentrations of nanoparticles, as seen on Figure 2. The experiment used a pulsed laser to provide the background illumination. This project is a continuing research project.


Author(s):  
Hisashi Sakurai ◽  
Yasuo Koizumi ◽  
Hiroyasu Ohtake

Experiments of critical heat flux of extremely thin-fast plate jet film sub-cooled flow were conducted. The extremely thin-fast film-type jet of sub-cooled water was erupted into a stagnant pool. The heat transfer is augmented by the fast jet flow on the heat transfer surface. Vapor generated on the surface is easily taken away from the surface by the fast jet flow and leaves upward from the surface. The static head of water in the pool depress down the fast film-type jet flow on to the heat transfer surface and may collapse the vapor film that is formed between the heat transfer surface and the fast film flow. All these combine to have the possibility to improve the critical heat flux. In the experiments, the liquid sub-cooling was in the range of 30 ∼ 70 K. The thickness of the jet film was 0.2 mm and 0.5 mm. The width of the jet film was 2 mm. The velocity of the erupting jet film was 5.0 ∼ 32 m/s. The heat transfer surface was 2.0 × 2.0 mm heated electrically. The heat transfer surface was placed on the bottom of the pool. The fast-thin film jet was erupted on the bottom of the pool parallel to the heat transfer surface. Bubble behavior generated on the heat transfer surface was recorded by a high speed video camera at 10,000 frames/s. The highest critical heat flux obtained up to now is 3.2 × 107 W/m2. The analytical model of the critical heat flux for the present flow system will be presented.


1976 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 623-629 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. L. Judd ◽  
K. S. Hwang

The results of an experimental investigation are presented in which dichloromethane (methylene chloride) boiling on a glass surface was studied using laser interferometry and high-speed photography. New data for active site density, frequency of bubble emission, and bubble departure radius were obtained in conjunction with measurements of the volume of microlayer evaporated from the film underlying the base of each bubble for various combinations of heat flux and subcooling. These results were used to support a model for predicting boiling heat flux incorporating microlayer evaporation, natural convection, and nucleate boiling mechanisms. Microlayer evaporation heat transfer is shown to represent a significant proportion of the total heat transfer for the range of heat flux and sub-cooling investigated.


1978 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. S. Fath ◽  
R. L. Judd

Evaporation of the microlayer underlying a bubble during nucleate boiling heat transfer is experimentally investigated by boiling dichloromethane (methylene chloride) on an oxide coated glass surface using laser interferometry and high speed photography. The influence of system pressure (51.5 kN/m2—101.3 kN/m2) and heat flux (17 k W/m2—65 kW/m2) upon the active site density, frequency of bubble emission, bubble departure radius and the volume of the microlayer evaporated have been studied. The results of the present investigation indicate that the microlayer evaporation phenomenon is a significant heat transfer mechanism, especially at low pressure, since up to 40 percent of the total heat transport is accounted for by microlayer evaporation. This contribution to the overall heat transfer decreases with increasing system pressure and decreasing heat flux. The results obtained were used to support the model propounded by Hwang and Judd for predicting boiling heat flux incorporating microlayer evaporation, natural convection and transient thermal conduction mechanisms.


Author(s):  
Evan T. Hurlburt ◽  
Helene A. Krenitsky ◽  
Richard C. Bauer

In nucleate boiling as the heat flux from the wall to the fluid is increased the heat transfer coefficient initially increases. At a sufficiently high heat flux called the critical heat flux (CHF) the heat transfer mechanism suddenly becomes less effective resulting in a rapid jump in wall temperature. In bubbly subcooled (or near-subcooled) conditions the CHF mechanism is referred to as departure from nucleate boiling. Departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) refers to the transition from nucleate boiling where liquid contacts the wall to film boiling in which a vapor layer contacts the wall. Various hypotheses have been used in modeling and predicting CHF. High speed video images of boiling water flows taken at Bettis Laboratory at the critical heat flux visually captured sufficient evidence of the DNB mechanism that improved insight into DNB modeling may be possible. This paper summarizes high speed video image analysis and the development of a new DNB critical heat flux model based on the image analysis findings. Using short window averages of image data, a significant increase in transmitted light intensity is seen near the wall just prior to CHF. The increase suggests that at CHF there is a transient reduction in the interfacial area concentration, ai, or bubble number density near the wall. This is believed to be the result of a sudden increase in bubble coalescence rates near the wall. The increase in coalescence rates results in a reduction in the interfacial area concentration causing it to reach a maximum at CHF. This near-wall maximum in ai at CHF under flow boiling conditions is consistent with recent pool boiling data in the literature. The image based observations motivated development of an interfacial area based CHF model to predict the maximum in the interfacial area concentration at CHF. The model predicts that a critical nucleation site density or a near-wall critical void fraction can be used as a DNB CHF criterion. This is a valuable simplification that can be directly implemented in three-dimensional thermal hydraulic codes. The critical nucleation site density result was used as an input to a simple wall heat transfer partition model to predict the critical heat flux. The model relies on correlation based estimates for the superheat temperature, bubble departure diameter, and bubble departure frequency. Model predictions are compared to CHF values taken from Groeneveld’s 2006 CHF look-up table.


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