Boiling heat transfer characteristics of nanofluids in a flat heat pipe evaporator with micro-grooved heating surface

An experimental study was performed to understand the nucleate boiling heat transfer of water–CuO nanoparticles suspension (nanofluids) at different operating pressures and different nanoparticle mass concentrations. The experimental apparatus is a miniature flat heat pipe (MFHP) with micro-grooved heat transfer surface of its evaporator. The experimental results indicate that the operating pressure has great influence on the nucleate boiling characteristics in the MFHP evaporator. The heat transfer coefficient and the critical heat flux (CHF) of nanofluids increase greatly with decreasing pressure as compared with those of water. The heat transfer coefficient and the CHF of nanofluids can increase about 25% and 50%, respectively, at atmospheric pressure whereas about 100% and 150%, respectively, at the pressure of 7.4 kPa. Nanoparticle mass concentration also has significant influence on the boiling heat transfer and the CHF of nanofluids. The heat transfer coefficient and the CHF increase slowly with the increase of the nanoparticle mass concentration at low concentration conditions. However, when the nanoparticle mass concentration is over 1.0 wt%, the CHF enhancement is close to a constant number and the heat transfer coefficient deteriorates. There exists an optimum mass concentration for nanofluids which corresponds to the maximum heat transfer enhancement and this optimum mass concentration is 1.0 wt% at all test pressures. The experiment confirmed that the boiling heat transfer characteristics of the MFHP evaporator can evidently be strengthened by using water/CuO nanofluids.     

Boiling heat transfer characteristics of nanofluids jet impingement on a plate surface

The jet boiling heat transfer of a bar water–CuO particle suspensions (nanofluids) jet impingement on a large flat surface was experimentally investigated. The experimental results were compared with those from water. The quantificational effects of the nanoparticles concentration and the flow conditions on the nucleate boiling heat transfer and the critical heat flux (CHF) were investigated. The experimental data showed that the jet boiling heat transfer for the water–CuO nanofluid is significantly different from those for water. The nanofluids have poor nucleate boiling heat transfer compared with the base fluid due to that a very thin nanoparticle sorption layer was formed on the heated surface. The CHF for the nanofluid increased compared with that of water. The reasons were that the solid–liquid contact angle decreased due to a very thin sorption layer on the heated surface and the jet and agitating effect of the nanoparticles on the subfilm layer enhance supply of liquid to the surface.     

Heat transfer characteristics of a two-phase closed thermosyphons using nanofluids

The heat transfer characteristics of the heat transfer devices can be done by changing the fluid transport properties and flow features of working fluids. In the present study, therefore, the heat transfer characteristics of two-phase closed thermosyphon (TPCT) with iron oxide-nanofluids are presented. The TPCT is fabricated from the copper tube with the outer diameter and length of 15, 2000 mm, respectively. The TPCT with the de-ionic water and nanofluids (water and nanoparticles) are tested. The iron oxide nanoparticles with mean diameter of 4-5 nm were obtained by the laser pyrolysis technique and the mixtures of water and nanoparticles are prepared using an ultrasonic homogenizer. Effects of TPCT inclination angle, operating temperature and nanoparticles concentration levels on the heat transfer characteristics of TPCT are considered. The nanoparticles have a significant effect on the enhancement of heat transfer characteristics of TPCT. The heat transfer characteristics of TPCT with the nanofluids are compared with that the based fluid.     

Effect of density ratio on critical heat flux in closed end vertical tubes

An experimental study was conducted to measure the critical axial heat flux in countercurrent two phase flow of liquid and its vapour in a closed-end vertical tube. The experimental results for four different fluids; carbon-tetrachloride, normal hexane, ethyl alcohol and water, were reduced to give a correlation for evaluation of the flooding critical heat flux. Results of other investigators on vertical heated tubes and vertical thermosyphons were also reduced and compared with the present experimental results. The effect of the density ratio of liquid to its vapour on the critical heat flux was shown. The length to diameter ratio of the test section was shown to have an influence on the flooding critical heat flux and was included in the correlation obtained.     

Analytical study of critical heat flux in vertical tubes with small length to diameter ratios

An analytical study is made of the critical axial heat flux in heated closed end vertical tubes in the case of small length to diameter ratios. An expression for the critical heat flux is obtained and its dependency on the dimensionless diameter is shown. Results are compared with the previous analysis for large length to diameter ratios and the available experimental data on vertical closed end tubes, vertical thermosyphons and wickless heat pipes. A high degree of consistancy between the present analysis and these experiments is obtained.     

Boiling induced nanoparticle coating and its effect on pool boiling heat transfer on a vertical cylindrical surface using CuO nanofluids

Experiments were performed to study boiling induced nanoparticle coating and its influence on pool boiling heat transfer using low concentrations of CuO- nanofluid in distilled water at atmospheric pressure. To investigate the effect of the nanoparticle coated surface on pool boiling performance, two different concentrations of CuO nanofluids (0.1 and 0.5?g/l) were chosen and tests were conducted on a clean heater surface in nanofluid and nanoparticle coated surface in pure water. For the bare heater tested in CuO nanofluid, CHF was enhanced by 35.83 and 41.68?% respectively at 0.1 and 0.5?g/l concentration of nanofluid. For the nanoparticle coated heater surface obtained by boiling induced coating using 0.1 and 0.5?g/l concentration of nanofluid and tested in pure water, CHF was enhanced by 29.38 and 37.53?% respectively. Based on the experimental investigations it can be concluded that nanoparticle coating can also be a potential substitute for enhancing the heat transfer in pure water. Transient behaviour of nanofluid was studied by keeping heat flux constant at 1,000 and 1,500?kW/m² for 90?min in 0.5?g/l concentration. The boiling curve shifted to the right indicating degradation in boiling heat transfer due to prolonged exposure of heater surface to nanofluid. Experimental outcome indicated that pool boiling performance of nanofluid could be a strong function of time and applied heat flux. The longer the duration of exposure of the heater surface, the higher will be the degradation in heat transfer.     

Analytical and numerical studies for Seiches in a closed basin with bottom friction

A standing wave oscillation in a closed basin, known as a seiche, could cause destruction when its period matches the period of another wave generated by external forces such as wind, quakes, or abrupt changes in atmospheric pressure. It is due to the resonance phenomena that allow waves to have higher amplitude and greater energy, resulting in damages around the area. One condition that might restrict the resonance from occurring is when the bottom friction is present. Therefore, a modified mathematical model based on the shallow water equations will be used in this paper to investigate resonance phenomena in closed basins and to analyze the effects of bottom friction on the phenomena. The study will be conducted for several closed basin shapes. The model will be solved analytically and numerically in order to determine the natural resonant period of the basin, which is the period that can generate a resonance. The computational scheme proposed to solve the model is developed using the staggered grid finite volume method. The numerical scheme will be validated by comparing its results with the analytical solutions. As a result of the comparison, a rather excellent compatibility between the two results is achieved. Furthermore, the impacts that the friction coefficient has on the resonance phenomena are evaluated. It is observed that in the prevention of resonances, the bottom friction provides the best performance in the rectangular type while functioning the least efficient in the triangular basin. In addition, non-linearity effect as one of other factors that provide wave restriction is also considered and studied to compare its effect with the bottom friction effect on preventing resonance.     

Boiling heat transfer in a vertical tube with freon 114

Test results for boiling heat transfer coefficients for R114 in vertical stainless tubes are reported both for upflow and downflow direction. Results are compared with different formulas given in the literature. A Recommendation of the numerical value ofC _sf in Rohsenow's formula for fully developed nucleation boiling for R114/stainless steel combination is given.     

Analytical and numerical study of buoyancy-driven convection in a vertical enclosure filled with nanofluids

This paper presents an analytical and numerical study of natural convection of nanofluids contained in a rectangular enclosure subject to uniform heat flux along the vertical sides. Governing parameters of the problem under study are the thermal Rayleigh number Ra, the Prandtl number Pr, the aspect ratio of the cavity A and the solid volume fraction of nanoparticles, Φ. Three types of nanoparticles are taken into consideration: Cu, Al₂O₃ and TiO₂. Various models are used for calculating the effective viscosity and thermal conductivity of nanofluids. In the first part of the analytical study, a scale analysis is made for the boundary layer regime situation. In the second part, an analytical solution based on the parallel flow approximation is reported for tall enclosures (A ≫ 1). In the boundary layer regime a good agreement is obtained between the predictions of the scale analysis and those of the analytical solution. Solutions for the flow fields, temperature distributions and Nusselt numbers are obtained explicitly in terms of the governing parameters of the problem. A numerical study of the same phenomenon, obtained by solving the complete system of the governing equations, is also conducted. A good agreement is found between the analytical predictions and the numerical simulations.     

Countercurrent gas-liquid flow in parallel vertical tubes

The subject of this paper is the flow between an upper reservoir, containing a liquid, and a lower reservoir, containing a gas, interconnected by parallel vertical tubes. The characteristics of the combined system are predicted from a knowledge of the behavior of flow in individual tubes. Numerous modes of possible operation are described analytically and demonstrated experimentally. The effects of system geometry, changes in gas supply characteristics, operating procedure and two-phase flow regimes on the transitions between modes and system stability are presented. Predictions are made for the limiting case of a large number of identical parallel channels.     

Two-phase damping and interface surface area in tubes with vertical internal flow

Two-phase flow is common in the nuclear industry. It is a potential source of vibration in piping systems. In this paper, two-phase damping in the bubbly flow regime is related to the interface surface area and, therefore, to flow configuration. Experiments were performed with a vertical tube clamped at both ends. First, gas bubbles of controlled geometry were simulated with glass spheres let to settle in stagnant water. Second, air was injected in stagnant alcohol to generate a uniform and measurable bubble flow. In both cases, the two-phase damping ratio is correlated to the number of bubbles (or spheres). Two-phase damping is directly related to the interface surface area, based on a spherical bubble model. Further experiments were carried out on tubes with internal two-phase air–water flows. A strong dependence of two-phase damping on flow parameters in the bubbly flow regime is observed. A series of photographs attests to the fact that two-phase damping in bubbly flow increases for a larger number of bubbles, and for smaller bubbles. It is highest immediately prior to the transition from bubbly flow to slug or churn flow regimes. Beyond the transition, damping decreases. It is also shown that two-phase damping increases with the tube diameter.     

Heat and mass transfer characteristics of a horizontal tube falling film absorber with small diameter tubes

This paper presents experimental results of the heat and mass transfer characteristics of a water–LiBr horizontal tube absorber made of small diameter tubes. The experimental set up includes a tube absorber, a generator, solution distribution system and cooling water system. Three different tube diameters of 15.88, 12.70 and 9.52 mm have been installed inside the absorber to investigate the effect of the tube diameter on the absorber performance. The experimental results show that the heat and mass transfer performance of the absorber increases as the tube diameter decreases. A comparison of the heat and mass transfer coefficients of the present study agree reasonable well with that of the previous studies.     

Hydrodynamic and mass transfer characteristics of slug flow in a vertical pipe with and without dispersed small bubbles

In this work, we present a numerical study to investigate the hydrodynamic characteristics of slug flow and the mechanism of slug flow induced CO₂ corrosion with and without dispersed small bubbles. The simulations are performed using the coupled model put forward by the authors in previous paper, which can deal with the multiphase flow with the gas–liquid interfaces of different length scales. A quasi slug flow, where two hypotheses are imposed, is built to approximate real slug flow. In the region ahead of the Taylor bubble and the liquid film region, the presence of dispersed small bubbles has less impacts on velocity field, because there are no non-regular intensive disturbance forces or centrifugal forces breaking the balance of the liquid and the dispersed small bubbles. In the liquid slug region, the strong centrifugal forces generated by the recirculation below the Taylor bubble lead to the effect of heterogeneity, which makes the profile of the radial liquid velocity component sharper with higher volume fraction of dispersed small bubbles. The volume fraction has a maximum value in the range of r/R = 0.5–0.6. Meanwhile, it is usually higher than 0.35, which means that larger dispersed bubbles can be formed by coalescences in this region. These calculated results are in good agreement with experimental results. The wall shear stress and the mass transfer coefficient with dispersed small bubbles are higher than those without dispersed small bubbles due to enhanced fluctuations. For short Taylor bubble length, the average mass transfer coefficient is increased when the gas or liquid superficial velocity is increased. However, there may be an inflection point at low mixture superficial velocities. For the slug with dispersed small bubbles, the product scales still cannot be damaged directly despite higher wall shear stress. In fact, the alternate wall shear stress and the pressure fluctuations perpendicular to the pipe wall with high frequency are the main cause for breaking the product scales.     

The behavior of gas-liquid interfaces in vertical tubes

Experimental studies of interface behavior when a gas flow, confined in a vertical tube, flows past a stationary body of liquid are presented. Critical conditions necessary for the interface to become unstable or break up are investigated. Specific phenomena studied include: penetration of liquid from a reservoir into the top open end of a vertical tube from which gas is emerging, flow of gas past a liquid ring maintained on the inside wall of the tube, conditions for the support of a “hanging film” on the tube wall, formation of droplets and establishment of a continuous upwards-flowing liquid film. A general mathematical formulation of this problem is presented and used to derive the set of relevant dimensionless parameters. Solutions are obtained to certain simple cases and are shown to be consistent with experiment in the limits in which one or more of the variables exerts negligible influence.     

Boiling heat transfer enhancement of water on tubes in compact in-line bundles

In desalinization devices and some heat exchangers making use of low-quality heat energy, both wall temperatures and wall heat fluxes of the heated tubes are generally quite low; hence they cannot cause boiling in flooded tube-bundle evaporators with common large tube spacing. However, when the tube spacing is very small, the incipient boiling in restricted spaces can generate and results in higher heat transfer than that of pool boiling at the same heat flux. This study investigated experimentally the effects of tube spacing, positions of tubes and test pressures on the boiling heat transfer of water in restricted spaces of the compact in-line bundles consisting of smooth horizontal tubes. The experimental results show that tube spacing and tube position have significant effects on the boiling heat transfer in a compact tube bundle. There is an optimum tube spacing that provides the largest heat transfer coefficient at the same heat flux.     

On the motion of long bubbles in vertical tubes

Potential flow theory has been applied to study the shape and speed of an infinitely long bubble rising through flowing liquid in a vertical tube. In particular, the combined effects of surface tension and externally forced liquid motion are examined. An analytical formula for the bubble rise velocity in stagnant liquid is proposed, and shown to be in good agreement with experimental data for all values of surface tension. Numerical solutions for the bubble velocity in upward flowing liquid are obtained for laminar and turbulent velocity profiles. Approximate expressions for the bubble velocity, where the effects of liquid motion and surface tension are incorporated through the Reynolds and inverse Eötwos, are proposed and compared with experimental data. The predicted changes in bubble shape have, to a large extent, been confirmed through comparisons with photographic evidence for a wide range of parameters.