Experimental Investigation on Pool Boiling Critical Heat Flux with Nanofluids

Study on nanofluid heat transfer is rather a very recent subject. However, it has attracted many researchers because of their promising heat transfer characteristics vis-a-vis water for applications in future nuclear and process industries. In this context, the authors have studied the pool boiling Critical Heat Flux (CHF) of different nanofluids i.e., Al2O3, SiO2, TiO2 and CuO. Varying concentrations of all the nanofluids were taken and CHF was experimentally measured for each case. In all the cases, significant enhancement in CHF was observed especially at very small concentrations, and moreover, there was a particular trend observed in the enhancement with regard to concentration of nanoparticles. In order to be able to predict the enhancement in CHF in case of nanofluids, an empirical model has been developed from the measured data. The model can predict the CHF in nanofluids based on their concentration as well as physical properties. The model is able to predict the CHF reasonably well.