Experiments on the effects of nanoparticles on subcooled nucleate pool boiling

The effect of nanoparticles on a single bubble-based nucleate pool boiling phenomenon under subcooled conditions has been studied. Water (as the base fluid) and two different concentrations of water-silica nanofluids (0.005% and 0.01% V/V) have been employed as the working fluids. The boiling experiments have been conducted in a specially designed chamber, wherein an ITO-coated heater substrate has been used to induce single bubble nucleation. Measurements have been performed in a completely non-intrusive manner using one of the refractive index-based diagnostics techniques, namely, rainbow schlieren deflectometry. Thus, the thermal gradients prevailing in the boiling chamber have directly been mapped as a two-dimensional distribution of hue values that are recorded in the form of rainbow schlieren images. The schlieren-based measurements clearly revealed the plausible influence of nanoparticles on the strength of temperature gradients prevailing in the boiling chamber. As compared to the base fluid, the ...