Pool boiling heat transfer enhancement by means of high DC electric field

This paper deals with an experimental study of the influence of a DC uniform electric field on nucleate boiling heat transfer. EHD effects are quantitatively investigated by performing experiments on various liquids with different properties. In these experiments, n-pentane, R-113, and R-123 are used as working fluids and the boiling phenomenon takes place on a horizontally-oriented copper surface. The experimental results show: (i) an enhancement of the nucleate pool boiling heat transfer; (ii) an increase of the Critical Heat Flux (CHF); and (iii) disappearance of the hysteresis phenomenon. The basic enhancement mechanisms are analyzed and quantified. For nucleate pool boiling and CHF regimes, heat transfer laws based on dimensionless numbers are proposed and determined from the experimental data. The results obtained with the proposed EHD models are in good agreement with experimental results.