Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Coefficient of Low-Pressure Glow Plasma Treated Water at Atmospheric and Reduced Pressure

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of low-pressure glow plasma water treatment on boiling phenomenon. The presented results show the novel influence and potential new applications of low-pressure glow plasma treated water. Low-pressure glow plasma water treatment affects some of its physical properties such as surface tension, pH, and electric conductivity; this is due to changes in the water structure. An experimental analysis aimed to investigate the effect of such a treatment on the boiling heat transfer coefficient of water, and to assess the stability of GPTW. The experiments were carried out at atmospheric and reduced pressure for heat fluxes up to 70 kW/m2. The analysis shows significant deterioration of the boiling heat transfer coefficient under reduced pressure. In addition, the plasma treatment process had no significant effect on the thermal conductivity of water, as confirmed experimentally. A slight increase was observed, but it was within the measuring error range of the instruments used.