Effect of Al₂O₃ Nanolubricant on a Turbo-BII R134a Pool Boiling Surface

This paper quantifies the influence of Al₂O₃ nanoparticles on the pool boiling performance of R134a/polyolester mixtures on a Turbo-BII-HP boiling surface. An Al₂O₃ nanolubricant (a lubricant containing dispersed nano-size particles) was made by suspending nominally 10 nm diameter Al₂O₃ particles in a synthetic polyolester to roughly a 1.0% volume fraction. The nanoparticles caused, on average, a 12% degradation in the boiling heat transfer relative to that for R134a/polyolester mixtures without nanoparticles for the three lubricant mass fractions that were tested. The degradation was nearly constant for heat fluxes between 20 kW/m² and 120 kW/m². It was speculated that the boiling heat transfer degradation was primarily due to a combination of (1) film boiling in the reentrant cavity rendering the nucleate boiling enhancement mechanism of the nanoparticles ineffective and (2) a reduction in bubble frequency due to the increased surface wetting as caused by the nanoparticles. In addition, these degradation factors might be mitigated with increased nanoparticle loading.