Jacopo Buongiorno

Critical heat flux maxima during boiling crisis on textured surfaces.

Enhancing the critical heat flux (CHF) of industrial boilers by surface texturing can lead to substantial energy savings and global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, but fundamentally this phenomenon is not well understood. Prior studies on boiling crisis indicate that CHF monotonically increases with increasing texture density. Here we report on the existence of maxima in CHF enhancement at intermediate texture density using measurements on parametrically designed plain and nano-textured micropillar surfaces. Using high-speed optical and infrared imaging, we study the dynamics of dry spot heating and rewetting phenomena and reveal that the dry spot heating timescale is of the same order as that of the gravity and liquid imbibition-induced dry spot rewetting timescale. Based on these insights, we develop a coupled thermal-hydraulic model that relates CHF enhancement to rewetting of a hot dry spot on the boiling surface, thereby revealing the mechanism governing the hitherto unknown CHF enhancement maxima.

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF CRITICAL HEAT FLUX WITH ALUMINA-WATER NANOFLUIDS IN DOWNWARD-FACING CHANNELS FOR IN-VESSEL RETENTION APPLICATIONS

The Critical Heat Flux (CHF) of water with dispersed alumina nanoparticles was measured for the geometry and flow conditions relevant to the In-Vessel Retention (IVR) situation which can occur during core melting sequences in certain advanced Light Water Reactors (LWRs). CHF measurements were conducted in a flow boiling loop featuring a test section designed to be thermal-hydraulically similar to the vessel/insulation gap in the Westinghouse AP1000 plant. The effects of orientation angle, pressure, mass flux, fluid type, boiling time, surface material, and surface state were investigated. Results for water-based nanofluids with alumina nanoparticles (0.001% by volume) on stainless steel surface indicate an average 70% CHF enhancement with a range of 17% to 108% depending on the specific flow conditions expected for IVR. Experiments also indicate that only about thirty minutes of boiling time (which drives nanoparticle deposition) are needed to obtain substantial CHF enhancement with nanofluids.

Critical heat flux maxima resulting from the controlled morphology of nanoporous hydrophilic surface layers

Porous hydrophilic surfaces have been shown to enhance the critical heat flux (CHF) in boiling heat transfer. In this work, the separate effects of pore size and porous layer thickness on the CHF of saturated water at atmospheric pressure were experimentally investigated using carefully engineered surfaces. It was shown that, for a fixed pore diameter (∼20u2009nm), there is an optimum layer thickness (∼2u2009μm), for which the CHF value is maximum, corresponding to ∼115% enhancement over the value for uncoated surfaces. Similarly, a maximum CHF value (∼100% above the uncoated surface CHF) was observed while changing the pore size at a constant layer thickness (∼1u2009μm). To explain these CHF maxima, we propose a mechanistic model that can capture the effect of pore size and pore thickness on CHF. The good agreement found between the model and experimental data supports the hypothesis that CHF is governed by the competition between capillary wicking, viscous pressure drop and evaporation, as well as conduction heat t...

Effect of Surface Oxidation on the Onset of Nucleate Boiling in a Materials Test Reactor Coolant Channel

The onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) serves as the thermal-hydraulic operating limit for many research and test reactors. However, boiling incipience under forced convection has not been well-characterized in narrow channel geometries or for oxidized surface conditions. This study presents experimental data for the ONB in vertical upflow of deionized (DI) water in a simulated materials test reactor (MTR) coolant channel. The channel gap thickness and aspect ratio were 1.96 mm and 29:1, respectively. Boiling surface conditions were carefully controlled and characterized, with both heavily oxidized and native oxide surfaces tested. Measurements were performed for mass fluxes ranging from 750 to 3000 kg/m2s and for subcoolings ranging from 10 to 45°C. ONB was identified using a combination of high-speed visual observation, surface temperature measurements, and channel pressure drop measurements. Surface temperature measurements were found to be most reliable in identifying the ONB. For the nominal (native oxide) surface, results indicate that the correlation of Bergles and Rohsenow, when paired with the appropriate single-phase heat transfer correlation, adequately predicts the ONB heat flux. Furthermore, incipience on the oxidized surface occurred at a higher heat flux and superheat than on the plain surface.