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Effect of nanofluids on thin film evaporation in microchannels

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Abstract

A thin film evaporation model based on the augmented Young–Laplace equation and kinetic theories was developed to describe the nanofluid effects on the extended evaporating meniscus in a microchannel. The nanofluid effects include the structural disjoining pressure, a thin porous coating layer at the surface formed by the nanoparticle deposition and the thermophysical property variations compared with the base fluid. The results show that the nanofluid thermal conductivity enhancement mainly due to the Brownian motion tends to greatly increase the liquid film thickness and the thin film heat transfer. The structural disjoining pressure effect tends to enhance the nanofluid spreading capability and the thin film evaporation. The nanoparticle-deposited porous coating layer improves the surface wettability while significantly reducing the thin film evaporation with increasing layer thickness due to the thermal resistance across this layer. The nanofluid thermal conductivity enhancement together with the structural disjoining pressure effect can not counteract the thermal resistance effects of the porous coating layer when the coating layer thickness is sufficiently large.

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Abbreviations

A :

Dispersion constant in Eq. 31, J

A 0, A 1, A 2 :

Constant

d :

diameter, m

D fr :

Fractal dimension

H :

Channel height, m

h fg :

Latent heat of vaporization, J kg−1

k :

Thermal conductivity, W m−1 K−1

k B :

Boltzmann’s constant, 1.38 × 10−23 J K−1

K :

Curvature, m−1

K p :

Permeability, m2

l*:

Nanolayer thickness, m

l :

Phonon mean free path, m

L :

Thin film length, m

\( \dot{m} \) :

Mass flow rate per unit width, kg s−1 m−1

\( \dot{m}^{\prime \prime } \) :

Evaporative mass flux, kg s−1 m−2

P :

Pressure, Pa

Pr :

Prandtl number

\( q_{x}^{\prime \prime } \) :

Local evaporative heat flux, W m−2

Q x :

Total heat transfer rate, W m−1

R k :

Kapitza resistance, m2 K W−1

Re :

Reynolds number

T :

Temperature, K

u :

Velocity along the x-axis, m s−1

x, y :

x and y coordinates, m

β :

Ratio, β = 2l*/d p in Eq. 3

γ :

Ratio, γ = k wl/k p in Eq. 4

χ :

Ratio, χ = 2R k k l/d p in Eq. 5

δ :

Film thickness, m

δ 0 :

Adsorbed film thickness, m

δ w :

Nanoparticle-deposited porous coating layer thickness, m

Δ:

Difference

η :

Empirical constant in Eq. 10

θ :

Microscopic contact angle

λ :

Empirical constant in Eq. 10

μ :

Dynamic viscosity, N s m−2

Π :

Structural disjoining pressure, Pa

ρ :

Density, kg m−3

σ :

Surface tension, N m−1

τ :

Shear stress, N m−2

ϕ :

Volume fraction of nanoparticles

0:

Junction of non-evaporating and evaporating thin film regions

b:

Bulk

c:

Capillary

d:

Disjoining

eff:

Effective

fr:

Fractal

i, δ, lv:

Liquid–vapor interface

l:

Liquid

L:

Junction of intrinsic meniscus and evaporating thin film regions

max:

Maximum

p:

Particle

pe:

Equivalent particle

sat:

Saturation

v:

Vapor

w:

Wall (solid)

wl:

Solid–liquid interface region or the nanolayer

∞:

Bulk liquid meniscus

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Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Nos. 51076009 and 50636020).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Thermal Science and Power Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Jun-Jie Zhao, Yuan-Yuan Duan & Bu-Xuan Wang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China

    Xiao-Dong Wang

Authors
  1. Jun-Jie Zhao
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  2. Yuan-Yuan Duan
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  3. Xiao-Dong Wang
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  4. Bu-Xuan Wang
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Correspondence to Yuan-Yuan Duan or Xiao-Dong Wang.

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Zhao, JJ., Duan, YY., Wang, XD. et al. Effect of nanofluids on thin film evaporation in microchannels. J Nanopart Res 13, 5033 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-011-0484-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-011-0484-y

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