Numerical Investigation on Pool Boiling Heat Transfer of Silica and Alumina Nanofluids

Surface modification through pool boiling of nanofluid is an efficient technique in delaying critical heat flux and attaining high heat flux at lower wall superheat temperature. The method of involving phase interaction, bubble evolving and dynamics phenomenon, and distribution of vapor void fraction altogether is the motivation behind current topic. The present work will contribute to the recovery and reuse of the wastewater and incinerator heat, cooling of high heat flux generating micro-electronics chips, and cooling of fast breeder test reactors. In the present study, the nucleate pool boiling of SiO2/water and Al2O3/water nanofluid are studied numerically and the effect of wall superheat temperature and heat flux on active nucleation site density, bubble departure diameter, and bubble waiting time are studied. The effect of various heater surface material and nanofluid concentration on wall superheat temperature and heat transfer coefficient are also investigated. A two-phase Eulerian approach, heat flux wall-partitioning model, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute boiling model are considered to simulate the current model. The pool boiling of nanofluids resulted in the formation of nano-porous layer on heater surface because of microlayer evaporation process that enhanced the heat transfer coefficient and reduced the wall superheat temperature.