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In this paper, dependence of active nucleation site density on boiling surfaces are developed. For pool boiling heat transfer, a mathematical model is derived based on statistical treatment using the probability density function of the cavity mouth radius and existing correlation for active nucleation site density, the volume of single bubble at departure, the bubble departure diameter and the bubble departure frequency. The proposed model is expressed as a function of wall superheat, the contact angle, maximum and minimum active cavities, and physical properties of fluid. It is shown that the wall heat flux can be determined by the consideration of the variation of the cavity mouth radius. A good agreement between the proposed model predictions and experimental data is found for different contact angles. It also turns out that the present model explains well the mechanism on how wettability affects the pool boiling.

A fractal model for the subcooled nucleate pool boiling heat transfer is proposed in this paper. The analytical expressions for the subcooled nucleate pool boiling heat transfer are derived based on the fractal distribution of nucleation sites on boiling surfaces. The proposed fractal model for the subcooled nucleate pool boiling heat transfer is found to be a function of wall superheat, liquid subcooling, fractal dimension, the minimum and maximum active cavity size, the contact angle and physical properties of fluid. No additional/new empirical constant is introduced, and the proposed model contains less empirical constants than the conventional models. The model predictions are compared with the existing experimental data, and fair agreement between the model predictions and experimental data is found for different liquid subcoolings.

Nucleate pool boiling heat transfer experiments have been conducted to nanofluids on a horizontal cylinder tube under atmospheric pressure. The nanofluids are prepared by dispersing Al₂O₃ nanoparticles into distilled water at concentrations of 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1 and 2wt.% with or without sodium, 4-dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS). The experimental results showed that: nanofluids at lower concentrations (0.001wt.% to 1wt.%) can obviously enhance the pool boiling heat transfer performance, but signs of deterioration can be observed at higher concentration (2wt.%). The presence of SDBS can obviously enhance the pool boiling heat transfer performance, and with the presence of SDBS, a maximum enhancement ratio of BHTC of 69.88%, and a maximum decrease ratio of super heat of 41.12% can be found in Group NS5 and NS4, respectively. The tube diameter and wall thickness of heating surface are the influential factors for boiling heat transfer coefficient. Besides, we find that Rohsenow formula failed to predict the characteristics of nanofluids. The mechanism study shows that: the decrease of surface tension, which leads to the decrease of bubble departure diameter, and the presence of agglomerates in nanofluids are the reasons for the enhanced pool boiling heat transfer performance. At higher concentration, particle deposition will lead to the decrease of distribution density of the vaporization core, and as a result of that, the boiling heat transfer performance will deteriorate.

This review traces the development of nanofluid pool boiling from its beginning (1984) to the present through a sampling of studies that have interested the authors and which have led to the latest findings at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). The studies of thermophysical properties of nanofluids are briefly covered. Several works in the last 7 years are highlighted to illustrate the modes of nanofluid pool boiling testing, the variability of nanofluid boiling heat transfer (BHT), and the postulations of causes of this behavior. Starting in 2006, the wettability increase in the nanoparticle coating, generated during the nanofluid pool boiling, is recognized as the source of critical heat flux (CHF) enhancement through its effect on the dynamics of hot spots and departing bubbles. The reasons for the observed contradictory BHT behavior are not yet fully clear, but recently at UTA, nanofluid boiling heat transfer has shown to be transient due to the dynamic nature of the formation of the nanoparticle coating. Also at UTA, the mechanism of nanoparticle deposition on the heated surface has been further confirmed. Thus, nanofluid boiling has led back to heat transfer enhancement through surface modification in nanoscale. These developments from 2006 are covered in more detail.

An experimental pool boiling study was conducted using plain and nanoporous coated heater surfaces immersed in various working fluids: water, ethanol and HFE-7100. Pool boiling tests were performed on flat 1 cm × 1 cm heaters. Unlike in water, the critical heat flux (CHF) enhancement of the nanoporous coating seems to be less or marginal in ethanol and HFE-7100 at 1 atm. The reduced effect of the nanoporous coating in ethanol and HFE-7100 is believed to be due to the highly wetting nature of these fluids since no obvious difference in wettability is observed between nanoporous coated and uncoated surfaces through apparent contact angle measurement. Moreover, pressure effects were also investigated for the fluids 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 influential, even for the highly wetting fluids, in delaying local dry-out, which in turn results in increasing CHF enhancement.

In the present study, pool boiling heat transfer coefficients in Lithium Bromide (LiBr) solution were obtained for smooth, floral, notched fin and notched floral tubes. Test range covered saturation pressure from 7.38 to 101.3 kPa, LiBr concentration from 0% to 50%. Floral tube yielded the highest heat transfer coefficient, and smooth tube yielded the lowest heat transfer coefficient. Effect of notching on heat transfer coefficient was dependent on tube shape. When applied to the smooth tube (notched fin tube), notching increased the heat transfer coefficient. When applied to the floral tube (notched floral tube), on the other hand, notching decreased the heat transfer coefficient. The reason has been attributed to the balance of advantage of added nucleation sites and disadvantage of added flow resistance. Boiling heat transfer correlations were developed which are applicable for saturation pressure from 7.38 to 101.3 kPa and LiBr concentration from 0% to 50%.

The low GWP refrigerants attract a great attention due to various regulations such as Montreal protocol amendment and F-gas regulation. The amendment of Montreal protocol proposes to reduce the HFCs consumption by 85% until 2035 and F-gas legislation will reduce the HFCs consumption by 79% until 2030. In 2010, US DOE launched the low GWP refrigerant project which covers the lifecycle climate performance modeling, experimental evaluation and field testing. In 2015, Korea launched the project to develop the core technology of refrigeration system for low GWP ($<$100) refrigerants application. Since the project limited the GWP value less than 100, the applicable candidates (except for natural working fluids) are restricted about five refrigerants including R-1234yf, R-1234ze-(E), R444A, R-1233zd(E) and R-1336mzz. In the literature, to the best of the author’s knowledge, there is very limited information for pool boiling studies except R-1234yf. In present work, the cycle simulation and the prediction of pool boiling heat transfer coefficient for each refrigerant has been conducted. And the literature review of pool boiling for the refrigerants has been performed.

Ammonia is a natural compound, used more and more in refrigeration installations of absorption and vapor compression, component sizing and more particularly evaporators pass by the mastery and prediction of heat transfer. Our study aims to retrieve experimental data from the literature and verify them with known author correlations, and the differences were observed with margins of error; a new correlation has been developed giving convincing results.