Pool boiling heat transfer enhancement using vertically aligned carbon nanotube coatings on a copper substrate

In the present study, pool boiling heat transfer experiments are performed on a bare copper surface, a sandblasted copper surface, and carbon nanotube coated copper substrates. Experiments were conducted on the substrate surface area of 14 x 14 mm(2) using de-mineralized water as the working fluid. The substrate is fixed tightly on the heater block, which is embedded with six cartridge heaters of total capacity 1500 W. Heat fluxes were measured using J-type thermocouples, which were aligned vertically along the heater block and also 1 mm from the top of the substrate. The pool boiling heat transfer experiments were conducted on bare, sandblasted and vertically aligned CNT coated copper substrates. The obtained results of sandblasted and CNT coated surfaces were compared with that of the bare copper surface. A remarkable enhancement of 38% in the CHF was observed on the CNT coated surface. The CNT coated surface was found to be effective in increasing the nucleate boiling and the CHF. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.