Graduation Year

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.S.M.E.

Degree Granting Department

Mechanical Engineering

Major Professor

Frank Pyrtle III, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Muhammad M. Rahman, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Craig Lusk, Ph.D.

Keywords

comsol, heat flux, heat transfer coefficient, nanopthesiss, phase change

Abstract

Phase-change heat transfer is an important process used in many engineering thermal designs. Boiling is an important phase change phenomena as it is a common heat transfer process in many thermal systems. Phase change processes are critical to thermodynamic cycles as most closed loop systems have an evaporator, in which the phase change process occurs. There are many applications/processes in which engineers employ the advantages of boiling heat transfer, as they seek to improve heat transfer performance. Recent research efforts have experimentally shown that nanofluids can have significantly better heat transfer properties than those of the pure base fluids, such as water.

The objective of this study is to improve the boiling curve of de-ionized water by adding aluminum oxide nanopthesiss in 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3% and 0.4% wt concentrations in a sub-cooled pool boiling apparatus. Enhancement to the boiling curve can be quantified in two ways: (i) the similar heat fluxes of de-ionized water at smaller excess temperature, indicating similar quantity of heat removal at lower temperatures and (ii) greater heat fluxes than de-ionized water at similar excess temperatures indicating better heat transfer at similar excess temperatures. In the same fashion, the secondary objective is to increase the convective heat transfer coefficient due to boiling by adding different concentrations of aluminum oxide nanopthesiss.

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