Boiling heat transfer enhancement of nanofluids on a smooth surface with agitation

The pool boiling heat transfer performance on a smooth silicon chip surface with agitation was experimentally investigated in this study. The nanofluids (Ag/alcohol) of 0.02 % volume concentration and ethyl alcohol with purification over 99.9 % were the two contrast working fluids. For each group, subcoolings of 40, 50 and 60 K were conducted under atmospheric pressure. To enhance the heat transfer performance, an agitating device was fixed above the top of the chip. The experimental results indicated that nanofluids could enhance the heat transfer performance especially in the nucleate boiling region. The heat transfer coefficient was significantly increased with nanofluids, while the critical heat flux (CHF) was nearly not changed. In the agitation Reynolds number of 20,300, the heat transfer performance of nanofluids was significantly enhanced in the convection region, and the CHF was increased by more than 25 % for all groups. This boiling phenomenon was observed for both nanofluids and alcohol groups. Meanwhile, the boiling curves of different liquid subcoolings in the nucleate region were quite similar to each other under agitation.