International Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration

Vol. 20, No. 1 (2012) 1150001 (11 pages)

© World Scienti¯c Publishing Company
DOI: 10.1142/S2010132511500015

EXPERIMENTAL POOL BOILING HEAT

TRANSFER STUDY OF THE NANOPOROUS
COATING IN VARIOUS FLUIDS

SANG M. KWARK*, MIGUEL AMAYA and SEUNG M. YOU

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department
The University of Texas at Arlington
500 W. First St. Arlington, TX 76019, USA
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*[email protected]

Received 23 June 2011

Accepted 14 September 2011
Published 31 March 2012

An experimental pool boiling study was conducted using plain and nanoporous coated heater
surfaces immersed in various working °uids: water, ethanol and HFE-7100. Pool boiling tests were
performed on °at 1 cm
1 cm heaters. Unlike in water, the critical heat °ux (CHF) enhancement
of the nanoporous coating seems to be less or marginal in ethanol and HFE-7100 at 1 atm. The
reduced e®ect of the nanoporous coating in ethanol and HFE-7100 is believed to be due to the
highly wetting nature of these °uids since no obvious di®erence in wettability is observed between
nanoporous coated and uncoated surfaces through apparent contact angle measurement. More-
over, pressure e®ects were also investigated for the °uids mentioned above. For the nanoporous
coated surface, CHF enhancement of the nanoporous coating appeared to be dependent on the
test pressure, showing greater CHF enhancement at lower pressure. It is believed that this
pressure dependent CHF enhancement behavior could be closely related to the bubble departure
diameter. As pressure lowers, the departure bubble size increases and this allows the nanoporous
coating to become more in°uential, even for the highly wetting °uids, in delaying local dry-out,
which in turn results in increasing CHF enhancement.

Keywords: Pool boiling; nanoporous coating; critical heat °ux; boiling heat transfer; wetting.

Nomenclature 1. Introduction
BHT : Boiling heat transfer Two-phase heat transfer is a highly e±cient mode
CHF : Critical heat °ux of heat dissipation but it is well known that its
q 00 : Heat °ux, kW/m 2
implementation can be restricted as a result of the
T : Temperature,  C

Tsat : Wall superheat, Tw  Tsat (Psys ) critical heat °ux (CHF) phenomenon. CHF is the
heat °ux beyond which this high e±ciency cannot
be sustained due to vapor blanketing of the surface,
Subscripts causing the surface temperature to spike. Nano°uids
sat : Saturated conditions have been considered a viable solution and their
w : Wall, heater surface potential in CHF enhancement has been con¯rmed

1150001-1
 S. M. Kwark, M. Amaya & S. M. You

by extensive research.14 In the recent past, re- whether the nanoporous coating can produce a
searchers have determined the fundamental cause similar CHF enhancement in working °uids that are
of the CHF enhancement. The general consensus highly wetting, such as alcohols and dielectrics. It is
points to the nanoparticle deposition and the con- therefore important to investigate the e®ect of the
sequential role it plays during the pool boiling pro- nanoporous coated heaters in other working °uids.
cess. Kim et al.5 investigated the nanoparticle To determine whether the signi¯cant CHF
deposition on the heater surface and the improve- enhancement phenomenon of nanoporous coatings
ment it brought about in the surface wettability. can be replicated in other working °uids, particu-
Das and coworkers2,6 looked into surface roughness, larly in better wetting °uids, and to better under-
particle size and nanoparticle concentration to see stand the nanoporous coating's wetting e®ect on
the role each parameter played in the nucleate CHF enhancement, pool boiling experiments were
boiling heat transfer (BHT). Se¯ane7 postulated conducted in three di®erent working °uids. These
that the CHF enhancement created by the nano- were water, ethanol and HFE-7100. Pressure e®ects
particle deposition was related to structural dis- were also investigated for these °uids. Uncoated
joining pressure and contact angle pinning. and nanoporous coated 1cm
1 cm °at heater
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Kim and Kim8 were the ¯rst to show that the

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surfaces were utilized. The nanoporous coating

heater's surface modi¯ed by the nanoparticle depo- was developed through the micro-layer evapora-
sition could bring about CHF enhancement of around tion process using ethanol nano°uid (1 g/l Al2O3,
 115% in pure water. Recently, Kwark et al.912 139 nm  100 nm) with a constant applied heat °ux
thoroughly investigated nano°uid (Al2O3water) (500 kW/m2) for 2 min. The rationale in selecting
pool boiling heat transfer using a °at square heater. the ethanol-based nano°uid, heat °ux and time is
They9,10 experimentally showed that microlayer described by Kwark et al.10
evaporation underneath the bubble during the boil- Current results show a good agreement with
ing process was responsible for the deposition of previous research in which the nanoporous coating is
nanoparticles (the nanoporous coating). Using this responsible for the signi¯cant CHF enhancement.
coated heater, they conducted boiling tests with pure However, the present study indicates that the wet-
water and found that the nanoporous coating caused ting characteristics between the nanoporous coating
the observed signi¯cant CHF enhancement.10,12 Also and the working °uid, that is, for the liquid surface
they demonstrated that the nano°uid boiling combination, are the key factors in the degree of
exhibited transient characteristics due to the CHF enhancement. In ambient air, the nanoporous
dynamic nature of the nanoparticle deposition.10,11 coating signi¯cantly enhances the wetting charac-
Kwark et al.10 developed an optimal coating on teristics in the relatively poor wetting °uid (pure
the heater surface by boiling in Al2O3ethanol water) whereas much less or marginally for the
nano°uid that maximized CHF enhancement with better wetting °uids (ethanol and HFE-7100) due
no degradation of BHT. Moreover, during their to their highly wetting nature. Moreover, CHF
optimization work, a linear relationship between the enhancement with the nanoporous coating seems to
CHF enhancement and the quasi-static contact be closely related to bubble departure size for the
angles of the nanoporous coatings was revealed, three working °uids, showing larger CHF enhance-
con¯rming a strong CHF dependence on surface ment as the pressure decreases (as the departing
wettability. Additionally, the measured instan- bubbles are larger).
taneous wetting speed of the liquid meniscus in
vertical dipping tests was found to be on the order of
the super¯cial vapor velocity proposed by Zuber.13 2. Experimental Apparatus
This match suggested that in the nanoparticle and Procedures
coating, the speed of the liquid front advancing in on
the growing and departing bubbles was su±ciently 2.1. Test vessel
fast to rewet the dry spot underneath the bubble A schematic of the test vessel used for the pool
and thus delay CHF. Interestingly, this postulation boiling tests is shown in Fig. 1(a). The inter-
was consistent with Kim et al.'s5 analysis of surface nal dimensions of the apparatus are 20 cm
wettability e®ect through the hot/dry spot theory ðwideÞ
20 cm ðhighÞ
17 cm (depth). The test
of CHF mechanism. However, it is still unclear vessel has two reinforced glass windows on the front

1150001-2
 Experimental Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Study of the Nanoporous Coating in Various Fluids

Vent to T-type
condenser thermocouples
Pressure
transducer
1 cm x 1 cm x 0.3 cm
copper block
Band heater 20 ohm resistor
(2 sides & heating element
Test Lexan
bottom)
heater substrate

Drain valve
D

(a) (b)

Fig. 1. Schematics of (a) test facility and (b) test heater assembly.
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and back. Two half-inch diameter (1000 W) car- measurements. The thermocouple is located 1.5 mm
tridge heaters were mounted in the vessel and used below the heater surface and surface temperature is
for heating and degassing processes. Strip heaters calculated assuming one-dimensional, steady-state
were externally attached to the test vessel and used conduction.
to maintain constant working °uid temperatures
during experiments. Two valves are connected to 2.2.2. Nanoparticle coated heater
the vessel, one on top (degassing) and one at the (nanoporous coated)
bottom (draining). The top valve is connected
The nanoparticle coated heater is made from the
to an external condenser to minimize loss of the
same plain heater just described. The nanoparticle
working °uid during the degassing procedures.
coating is generated by boiling the plain heater
T-type thermocouples measure liquid, vapor and
in ethanol-based nano°uid. The ethanol nano°uid
test heater temperatures. The internal pressure
solution is prepared by adding 2 g of Al2O3 nano-
was measured by an absolute pressure transducer,
particles into 2 liters of ethanol (resulting in nano-
Omega PX202, which has a range of around
°uid concentration of 1 g/l) and then subjecting it to
030 psi (0210 kPa).
an ultrasonic bath for two hours. The plain heater is
immersed into this nano°uid and a constant heat
2.2. Test heater °ux (500 kW/m2) is applied for 2 min. The boiling
process results in a thin layer of nanoparticle depo-
2.2.1. Plain heater (uncoated) sition and once this coating is developed, the heater
A schematic of the heater assembly used for the pool is °ushed with pure ethanol and dried with an air
boiling tests is shown in Fig. 1(b). The test heater jet. This heater is optimal in that it maximizes CHF
consists of a square copper block, a heating element, without degrading the BHT coe±cient, in other
lexan substrate, epoxy and wires. The 1 cm
1 cm words, without increasing the wall superheat when
square resistor (20 ) is soldered to the copper pool boiling in pure water. BHT performance can be
block (1 cm
1 cm
0:3 cm). The copper block and interpreted as a measure of how low can the surface
resistor assembly are then placed in a polycarbonate temperature be, or how low can the wall superheat
substrate, copper side up. 3Mr 1838 Scotch-Weld be, during dissipation of a given heat °ux. The
Epoxy is then distributed around the perimeter of the rationale in selecting the ethanol-based nano°uid,
copper block exposing only the top (1 cm
1 cm) heat °ux and time is described by Kwark et al.10 and
surface. Both the epoxy and the substrate functioned SEM images of the developed nanoporous coating
also as insulators by preventing heat loss through the are shown in Fig. 2. They showed that the deposited
sides and bottom. A T-type thermocouple implanted coating thickness was of the order of submicron
in the copper block provides test heater temperature (< 1
m). They also reported that there was no

1150001-3
 S. M. Kwark, M. Amaya & S. M. You

Fig. 2. SEM images of the developed nanoporous coating in 1 g/l ethanol-based nano°uid for 2 min at 500 kW/m2.
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signi¯cant particle detachment from the optimally assuring it corresponds to that of the saturation
coated surface after a single boiling test in pure water. pressure, based on the liquid temperature. At this
In addition, they subjected the developed nanoporous point, a temperature controller which is connected
coating to 15 consecutive pool boiling tests in pure to external band heaters is activated to maintain
water and observed that there was no signi¯cant constant system temperatures. Tests are started
change of BHT and CHF through all 15 runs, meaning after allowing the working °uid temperature to level
that the developed nanoporous coating was reliable. o® at a constant temperature.
Experiments were controlled and monitored
using a program written in LabVIEW which con-
2.3. Test procedures trols a power supply and data acquisition system.
Pool boiling tests were performed using the test Tests were conducted by increasing the heat °ux till
apparatus and heater shown in Fig. 1. Both uncoa- the CHF condition was reached. The program
ted and nanoporous coated heaters were tested in evaluates the heater temperature for steady-state
pool boiling of pure water, ethanol and HFE-7100. equilibrium at each applied heat °ux before
Before each test, a preliminary test is run using a increasing the heat °ux to the next programmed
plain heater in the pure °uids mentioned above to increment. The temperature is measured 125 times
verify the experimental setup and test heaters. After at 500 Hz and the averaged value is compared to the
this pre-test, the prepared heaters are mounted on averaged value of the next 125 measurements.
the mounting base of the test section. The top plate Steady state is assumed when the di®erence is less
of the test section is then bolted to the body of the than 0:2  C. To detect the CHF, the temperature is
vessel. Once the vessel is tightly sealed, the cartridge continuously monitored, and the program assumes
heaters are turned on and the valve on the top of the that the CHF condition is reached when the
vessel is opened to release noncondensable gases instantaneous temperature of the heater exceeds the
contained within the vessel and dissolved in the previously measured steady-state temperature by
working °uids. The system temperature is increased more than 20  C. The power to the heater is then
till the liquid temperature reaches its saturation shut down and all data including temperatures,
temperature and is maintained at this temperature pressure and heat °ux are saved.
for 30 min to remove any noncondensable gases in
the test liquid. The condenser, located above the
test section, allows any noncondensable gases to 2.4. Uncertainty
escape while simultaneously condensing any vapor The experimental uncertainties for this study were
back into the vessel to reduce the °uid loss. After estimated using the Kline and McClintock
30 min, the top valve is closed and cartridge heaters method.14 By considering the errors due to voltage,
are turned o®. The system pressure is then checked surface area of the heater and the current applied,

1150001-4
 Experimental Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Study of the Nanoporous Coating in Various Fluids

3000 contact angle and CHF, that is, with lower contact
Open: uncoated
Pure water [10]
Closed: nanoporous
angles consistently providing higher CHF.
Ethanol
2500 HFE-7100
Unlike in pure water, only marginal or less CHF
enhancement was observed in ethanol and HFE-
7100 at 1 atm with the nanoporous coating. Since it
2000 is well known that ethanol and HFE-7100 are better
q" (kW/m2)

wetting than water, it can be noted or stated that

1500 Arrow symbols: the e®ectiveness of the nanoporous coating in CHF
Onset of CHF enhancement appears negligible with better wetting
1000
°uids. This is very similar to the results reported by
Coursey and Kim,15 where better wetting systems
resulted in less CHF improvement using nano°uids
500 (e.g., aluminaethanol on glass and gold). It seems
then that the degree of CHF enhancement of the
0 nanoporous coating is dependent on the wetting
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0 10 20 30 40 50
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characteristics of the original surface and working

∆Tsat(K)
°uid combination. That is, for better wetting °uids
Fig. 3. Boiling curves of uncoated and nanoporous coated
(ethanol and HFE-7100), at 1 atm, there is marginal
surfaces with various working °uids at 1 atm. or negligible wetting improvement by the nanopor-
ous coating, which in turn produces marginal or
negligible enhancement of CHF. Moreover, Fig. 3
the nucleate boiling heat °ux uncertainty was esti- also shows that there is a noticeable reduction in
mated to be less than 5%. The temperature and the BHT for both better wetting °uids (ethanol & HFE-
pressure measurements were estimated to have less 7100) while no signi¯cant BHT change was observed
than  0:5  C error and  0.25% error in full scale for pure water. This BHT degradation will be dis-
considering calibration error, respectively. cussed later.
To evaluate and compare wetting behaviors
between °uids over uncoated and nanoporous coated
3. Results and Discussions surfaces, an apparent contact angle measurement
was conducted using the optical goniometer in
3.1. E®ect of working °uids ambient conditions and the results are plotted
In order to investigate the e®ects of the nanoporous in Fig. 4. The curves show the apparent contact
coating in various working °uids, pool boiling angle variation over 240 s and reveal the markedly
experiments were conducted using ethanol and high wettability of HFE-7100 and ethanol relative
HFE-7100 for both the uncoated and the nanopor- to that of water. For HFE-7100 and ethanol the
ous coated surface heaters at 1 atm saturated, and contact angles instantly drop to  20  and rapidly
the results were compared with those of pure water. decrease, reaching the measurement limit ( 5  ) of
The pool boiling results obtained are plotted in the equipment within  10 s, while for water, over
Fig. 3 along with the results of pure water reported uncoated and coated surfaces, the contact angle is
by Kwark et al.10 In the ¯gure, it is clear that the higher and remains higher for the duration. However,
nanoporous coating signi¯cantly enhances CHF for pure water, the apparent contact angle is reduced
( 80%) with pure water. Recent studies5,812 have by  70  over the nanoporous coated surface. For
shown that this CHF enhancement of the nanopor- the better wetting °uids (ethanol and HFE-7100), on
ous coating, relative to the uncoated surface in pure the other hand, no signi¯cant change in the contact
water, is due to the nanoporous coating's better angle between uncoated and nanoporous coated
wetting characteristics. Kwark et al.10 and Kim surfaces is observed. These measurements (Fig. 4)
et al.5 have shown through optical goniometry that appear to corroborate that for the highly wetting
signi¯cantly lower apparent contact angles are °uids there is no signi¯cant wetting enhancement by
measured on the nanoporous coated surfaces com- deploying nanostructures on the surface. And from
pared to those on plain surfaces. Kwark et al.10 both results (Figs. 3 and 4), it appears that for highly
also showed an inverse linear relationship between wetting °uids, the lack of CHF enhancement in the

1150001-5
 S. M. Kwark, M. Amaya & S. M. You

120 surfaces was recorded by high speed camera. Figure 5

Pure water shows sample images of the wetting/wicking trends
Ethanol exhibited by the tested °uids (pure water, ethanol,
100 HFE-7100
HFE-7100) over the nanoporous coated surfaces. For
Apparent contact angle (degree)

20 the uncoated surfaces, no images are provided since

80 no signi¯cant liquid movement was observed for all
15 tested °uids. For the nanoporous coated surface,
10
however, obvious di®erences in liquid pulling were
60
found between °uids. As previously reported by
5 Kwark et al.10 pure water was instantaneously pulled
40 by the nanoporous coated surface and this pulling
0
0 5 10 15 20 behavior appeared to be more indicative of wetting
behavior than of wicking. Wicking is usually de¯ned
20
as °ow of liquids through the media due to the
Open: uncoated
Closed: nanoporous capillary action induced by the attraction force
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0 between liquid molecules and surface. However, they

0 60 120 180 240
observed that the liquid head on the nanoporous
Duration (sec.)
coated surface stopped at  1000 ms and they did not
Fig. 4. Apparent contact angles of uncoated and nanoporous detect a wicking head beyond that time. Moreover,
coated surfaces with various °uids. Kwark et al.10 showed that estimates of super¯cial
vapor velocity are of the same order of magnitude as
nanoporous coating is connected to the lack of the measured instantaneous wetting speed ( 0.1 m/s),
wettability change produced by the nanoporous and suggested that the rewetting speed in the nano-
coating. porous coating may be su±cient to rewet continu-
To further support this wetting behavior, a ver- ously the base of the bubbles as they grow and
tical dipping test was carried out for the highly depart, resulting in CHF enhancement. In Fig. 5,
wetting °uids in the same manner as described by unlike the pure water wetting behavior, there was no
Kwark et al.10 for water, and compared to their signi¯cant liquid pulling for the other two °uids.
results for water (Fig. 5). The liquid wetting behavior Ethanol appeared to wick through the nanoporous
over the uncoated and the nanoporous coated coating and the wicking speed was much slower than

Initial 50 ms 100 ms

Nanoporous coated with pure water

Nanoporous coated with ethanol

Nanoporous coated with HFE-7100

Fig. 5. Vertical dipping test with water,10 ethanol and HFE-7100 on the nanoporous coated surface.

1150001-6
 Experimental Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Study of the Nanoporous Coating in Various Fluids

3500 from Rohsenow's23 correlation matched the exper-

Tsat=60°C (20 kPa) Tsat=100°C (101 kPa) imental results with the given surface factor con-
3000 Tsat=80°C (47 kPa) Tsat=120°C (200 kPa) stant (Csf ¼ 0:0128). However, these well-known
Open: uncoated relationships do not account for heater surface
2500 Closed: nanoporous modi¯cations and consequently cannot predict the
Arrow symbols:
Onset of CHF CHF values correctly for the nanoporous coated
q" (kW/m2)

2000 heaters. The tests with the nanoporous coated hea-

ters showed a consistent increase in the CHF for
1500 each of the tested pressures with no signi¯cant e®ect
on the nucleate BHT. Moreover, Kwark et al.11
1000 reported that the CHF enhancement, relative to
Zuber's13 correlation, was the greatest at the lowest
500
pressure ( 115% at 20 kPa) and gradually decreased
Pure water as the pressure increased ( 70% at 200 kPa).
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 An almost identical experiment was conducted
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∆Tsat(K) with ethanol and HFE-7100, and the results are

shown in Fig. 7. Like the pure water tests, the results
Fig. 6. E®ect of pressure on the pool boiling curve of pure follow general pressure e®ects, showing that both
water with uncoated and nanoporous coated surfaces from the CHF and the BHT increase as system pressure
Kwark et al.11
increases. However, unlike the pure water results,
CHF enhancement of the nanoporous coating seems
to be much less (Figs. 7(a) and 7(b)) and disappears
the instant pulling speed observed for pure water. In as pressure increases (> 100 kPa). As previously
case of HFE-7100, there was no liquid movement at observed for 1 atm (Fig. 3), the reduced e®ect of the
all, possibly due to its high density. These tests fur- nanoporous coating on CHF in ethanol and HFE-
ther con¯rm that the nanoporous coating signi¯- 7100 is believed to be due to the highly wetting
cantly enhances the wetting characteristics of the nature of these °uids. As discussed earlier, no sig-
relatively poor wetting °uid (pure water) but ni¯cant di®erence in wettability through contact
apparently it is much less helpful for the better angle measurement was observed between nano-
wetting °uids (ethanol and HFE-7100). porous coated and uncoated surfaces for ethanol and

3.2. E®ect of system pressure 1200 600

Tsat=27°C (30kPa)
In order to investigate the e®ect of pressure on CHF Tsat=40°C (18kPa)
Tsat=55°C (37kPa) Tsat=40°C (48kPa)
enhancement and BHT variation, both uncoated 1000 500
Tsat=78°C (101kPa) Tsat=60°C (101kPa)
and nanoporous coated surfaces were tested in Tsat=100°C (190kPa) Tsat=80°C (180kPa)
ethanol and HFE-7100 at four saturated pressures 800 Open: uncoated 400
ranging from  20 to  200 kPa. For comparison, Closed: nanoporous
q" (kW/m2)

q" (kW/m2)

the boiling curves of pure water obtained by Arrow symbols:

600 300
Kwark et al.11 are presented in Fig. 6. They had Onset of CHF
conducted pool boiling tests at four di®erent satur-
400 200
HFE-7100

ation pressures (20 kPa, 47 kPa, 101 kPa and

Ethanol

200 kPa) for both the uncoated and the nanoporous

coated 1 cm
1 cm heaters in pure water. The 200 100
results showed good agreement with previous
research,1622 in showing that both the BHT 0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 10 20 30 40 50
and the CHF increased as the system pressure
∆Tsat(K)
increased for both uncoated and nanoporous coated
surfaces. Particularly for the uncoated surface at Fig. 7. E®ect of pressure on the pool boiling curve of (a)
various pressures, the CHF values obtained from ethanol and (b) HFE-7100 with uncoated and nanoporous
Zuber's13 correlation and the nucleate boiling curve coated surfaces.

1150001-7
 S. M. Kwark, M. Amaya & S. M. You

HFE-7100. That is, by these measurements, there is and vertical dipping measurements performed in
no apparent wettability enhancement by having a ambient, could also contribute to BHT degradation.
nanoparticle coating in the presence of better wet- An increase in wettability reduces the number of
ting °uids. But it is also observed that there is active microcavities in the surface. With increase of
noticeable CHF enhancement as pressure decreases wettability, the liquid penetrates deeper into the
even for the highly wetting °uids. It seems that the microcavities, reducing the volume of trapped vapor
CHF enhancement could be closely related to which serves as the vapor embryos for bubbles.
interaction between bubble departure diameter and Therefore, when a °uid is more wettable, the num-
possible wettability enhancement by the nanopor- ber of active sites, that is, sites releasing bubbles,
ous coating at lower pressures. It is hypothesized decreases.24 However, BHT did not degrade for
that the wettability of highly wetting °uids is water over the nanoporous coating (Fig. 6), putting
improved more signi¯cantly at lower pressures by this cause in doubt. Further investigation is re-
the nanoporous coating than revealed by goni- quired to pinpoint the reason or reasons for BHT
ometer and vertical dipping tests conducted in air at degradation.
ambient pressure (Figs. 4 and 5), or that for highly To better demonstrate the pressure e®ects on
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wetting °uids the measurement methodology im- CHF, the CHF value obtained with the uncoated
plemented in this study is inadequate to detect a and the nanoporous coated heaters for each °uid at
slight wettability improvement caused by the various pressures was divided by Zuber's13 CHF
nanoporous coating which somehow has an impact value, to show enhancement relative to Zuber's13
at lower pressures. If so, then, the argument by prediction. This is plotted in Fig. 8. From Fig. 8(a),
Kwark et al.11 made with regard to CHF enhance- it can be seen that measured CHF values of the
ment with pure water would apply also for ethanol uncoated surface closely match Zuber's13 for all
and HFE-7100. As pressure decreases, the bubble's tested °uids. In the case of the nanoporous coated
departure size increases and departure frequency surface, Fig. 8(b), for the lowest pressure of ethanol,
decreases correspondingly. Larger bubbles and lower a highly wetting °uid, there is substantial CHF
frequency lead to potentially larger dry spots and enhancement, comparable to that for water. And for
longer vapor dwelling over the surface, respectively. all °uids, CHF enhancement appears to be dependent
As a result, the nanoporous coating becomes more on the system pressure showing the greatest at the
e®ective in delaying local dry-out in this circum- lowest pressure and gradually decreasing as the
stance by providing more rewetting at the base of
the bubbles than the plain surface. This in turn may
result in noticeable CHF enhancement even with 2.5
highly wetting °uids. Uncoated Pure water
Unlike pure water results, on the other hand, the 2.0 Ethanol
HFE-7100
BHT of the nanoporous coated surface deteriorated
1.5
for all pressures in ethanol and HFE-7100 and it
CHFExperiments/CHFZuber's

appears that the rate of BHT performance degra- 1.0

dation is larger with increasing pressure. It is
plausible that during nanoporous coating develop- 0.5
ment, numerous nucleation sites for the highly 2.5
wetting °uids, which are smaller than those for
poorly wetting °uids such as water, are covered or 2.0

blocked by the nanoparticles. Reduced number of

1.5
bubble departure was qualitatively observed from
the nanoporous coated surface in ethanol and HFE- 1.0
7100 when compared to that from the plain surface Nanoporous
(600 grit sanded), and a similar argument regarding 0.5
101 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
102 2 3 4
BHT degradation due to microcavity blocking is
Pressure (kPa)
given by Narayan et al.6 However, a wettability
improvement by the nanoporous coating which did Fig. 8. CHF enhancement of (a) uncoated and (b) nanoporous
not appear, or was not detectable in the goniometer coated surfaces for various °uids at various pressures.

1150001-8
 Experimental Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Study of the Nanoporous Coating in Various Fluids

pressure increases for all °uids tested. In this context, and HFE-7100, respectively) to 101 kPa, the bubble
the e®ect of the nanoporous coating on the highly departure size roughly doubles. For a further
wetting °uids, which was marginal at 1 atm as decrease of similar magnitude, that is, to pressures
shown in Fig. 3, now appears signi¯cant, especially in the low end of the pressure testing range (20 kPa,
for HFE-7100, even at 1 atm. Nonetheless, the CHF 18 kPa and 30 kPa for water, ethanol and HFE-
enhancement of pure water, the less wetting °uid, 7100, respectively), these correlations predict bub-
due to the nanoporous coating is superior to that of ble departure size 711 times larger than those for
the other °uids over the tested pressure range. the highest pressures (180  200 kPa). From this
¯gure it is seen that the CHF enhancement trend of
growing relative enhancement with decreasing
3.3. Bubble departure diameter versus
pressure, corresponds to greater increase in depart-
CHF enhancement ing bubble size with decreasing pressure.
As discussed earlier, it is believed that the CHF Figure 10 demonstrates the relationship directly
enhancement due to the nanoporous coating is clo- by plotting measured CHF enhancement versus
sely related to bubble departure size for the working estimated departure bubble diameter from Cole and
by FLINDERS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY on 01/12/15. For personal use only.

Shulman25 for water, ethanol and HFE-7100.

Int. J. Air-Cond. Ref. 2012.20. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com

°uids. Also, as previously stated, the bubble

departure characteristics at low pressures seem to Although the slope appears to vary depending on
give an opportunity for the wettability in the the working °uid, this result shows that the CHF
nanoporous coating to have more in°uence. Cole enhancement due to the nanoporous coating linearly
and Shulman's25 correlation can be helpful in esti- increases as the bubble departure diameter increases
mating how the bubble behavior might change with for the three °uids. The increased slope for the
system pressure. Therefore, bubble size estimates of highly wetting °uids is a re°ection of their relatively
water, ethanol and HFE-7100 from Cole and larger change of CHF enhancement with pressure
Shulman's25 correlation for varying system press- reduction which was revealed in Fig. 8(b). CHF
ures are shown in Fig. 9. The ¯gure clearly illus- enhancement varied from almost none or zero at
trates that the bubble's departure size increases as the high pressure for both °uids to comparable to
pressure decreases, with growing increments of that of water for ethanol, while for water CHF
bubble size with lower pressure. With a decrease enhancement was consistently large for all pressures.
from the tested highest pressure for each °uid So, by lowering the system pressure, which leads to
(200 kPa, 190 kPa and 180 kPa for water, ethanol larger bubbles, accompanying larger dry-spots and

20 2.5
Pure water Pure water
Ethanol Ethanol
HFE-7100 HFE-7100
Bubble departure diameter (mm)

CHFNanoporous/CHFZuber's

15 2.0

Cole & Shulman25

10 1.5

5 1.0

0 0.5
101 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
102 2 3 4 0 5 10 15 20
Pressure (kPa) Bubble departure diameter (mm)

Fig. 9. Bubble departure diameter for various °uids at various Fig. 10. Relationship between CHF enhancement and esti-
pressures (Cole and Shulman25 correlation). mated bubble departure diameter with various °uids.

1150001-9
 S. M. Kwark, M. Amaya & S. M. You

longer vapor dwelling time, the nanoporous coating wetting °uids (ethanol and HFE-7100). The
is shown to provide the ability to enhance CHF even greatest relative CHF enhancement is achieved
for highly wetting °uids. It appears then that the at the lowest pressure for all working °uids,
e®ect of the nanoporous coating is essentially the and therefore coincides with the larger departing
same in kind for all °uids, that is, there is a wett- bubbles.
ability enhancement, however small, which leads to . CHF enhancement was shown to be closely re-
CHF enhancement, regardless of the wettability of lated to the predicted bubble departure size of the
the original surface°uid combination. The e®ect is working °uids. To explain this relationship it is
di®erent only in degree. For poorly wetting °uids, postulated that the nanoporous coating provides
such as water, the e®ects of the nanoporous coating the necessary wettability increase, even for highly
are ampli¯ed, and therefore obvious. For the highly wetting °uids, to delay local dry-out due to larger
wetting °uids, the wettability increase due to the dry spots and longer vapor dwelling time that
nanoporous coating is smaller, therefore more di±- accompany the larger departing bubbles.
cult to detect, and in turn the CHF enhancement is . The BHT deteriorated (the wall superheat
less. To con¯rm this line of thought, additional increased) with the nanoporous coating in highly
by FLINDERS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY on 01/12/15. For personal use only.
Int. J. Air-Cond. Ref. 2012.20. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com

study is required such as wettability measurements wetting °uids (ethanol and HFE-7100). This
in saturated conditions at the various pressures could be due to reduction of active nucleation sites
and/or a more sensitive method to assess wett- because of ¯lling in of microcavities by the nano-
ability. Also, such measurements could be com- porous coating. Increase of wettability due to the
plemented with analysis to show how improvement nanoporous coating could also have an e®ect.
in wettability of highly wetting °uids, which seems
so small or negligible, might become so con-
sequential in the neighborhood of departing bubbles References
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