A numerical assessment of copper oxide and alumina nanoparticles during CHF occurrence

Highlights: •A comparison between copper oxide and alumina nanoparticles during CHF phenomenon. •Improvement of CHF threshold using different nanoparticles concentrations. •Simulation of boiling flow which led to dryout phenomenon with an Eulerian–Eulerian approach for each phase. -- Abstract: Subcooled nucleate boiling in forced convection has been drawing significant attention in many fields due to its good heat transfer efficiency and high heat removal capacity. Such advancement in sub-cooled nucleate boiling is the result of continuing efforts from experimental, theoretical and numerical researchers, particularly focusing on critical heat flux (CHF). CHF heat transfer regimes are inefficient and the occurrence of CHF can cause a large temperature gradient in the heated wall leading to physical burnout. One way to increase the level of the CHF is to add certain nanoparticles to the base fluid. The present paper compares the effects of the addition of copper oxide and alumina nanoparticles on CHF phenomenon within the general-purpose computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The governing equations solved are generalized phase continuity, momentum and energy equations. Wall boiling phenomena are modeled using the baseline mechanistic nucleate boiling model developed in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). To simulate the critical heat flux phenomenon, the RPI model is extended to the dry-out phenomenon by partitioning wall heat flux to both liquid and vapor phases considering the existence of thin liquid wall film. It was shown that the presence of copper oxide in comparison with alumina nanoparticles in the base fluid, delays the dryout phenomenon more dramatically and in specific concentration, CHF threshold would be enhanced and consequently the safety margins of the operation would be improved.