Flow Boiling Heat Transfer Coefficient of DI-Water/SiO2 Nanofluid Inside a 1.1 mm Round Microchannel

The scope of the present paper is the evaluation of the heat transfer coefficient during flow boiling of DI-water/silica nanofluid inside a 1.1 mm ID tube. The experiments were performed for nanoparticles and DI-water with both having thermal conductivities of the same order of magnitude (k_DI-water = 0.6 W/mK, k_silica = 1.4 W/mK). So, it was possible investigating the effect of the nanoparticles on the heat transfer coefficient under condition of negligible thermal conductivity enhancement. Experiments were carried out for mass velocities of 200, 400 and 600 kg/m²s, heat fluxes from 60 kW/m² to 350 kW/m² and nanoparticles volumetric concentration of 0.001%, 0.01% and 0.1%. Moreover, flow boiling heat transfer data under similar experimental conditions were obtained for DI-water without nanoparticles before and after performing each nanofluid test. The experiments were performed at the same test section according to the following sequence: i) DI-water, ii) 0.001% vol. nanofluid, iii) DI-water, iv) 0.01% vol. nanofluid, v) DI-water, vi) 0.1% vol. nanofluid, and vii) DI-water. Such procedure was adopted in order to evaluate the influence of the deposition of nanoparticles at each concentration on the heat transfer coefficient. For single-phase flow the HTC decreases as the experiments were performed. The thermal resistance due to deposition of nanoparticles is relevant to the heat transfer coefficient for single-phase flow of nanofluids inside microchannels. The flow boiling HTC decreases with increasing the nanoparticle volumetric concentration from a concentration of 0.001%. Based on the flow boiling HTC behaviors for tests with pure DI-water before and after the nanofluid tests, the fact that the HTC decreases with increasing the nanoparticle volumetric concentration is not explained only by the deposition on the surface of a nanoparticle layer. Tests for pure DI-water before the tests of nanofluids (BBN condition) and after all the nanofluids tests (ABN 0.1% condition) presents similar heat transfer coefficients, despite the deposition of a nanoparticle layer on the surface.