Ultrasonic augmentation in pool boiling heat transfer over external surfaces: A review

Abstract

Boiling heat transfer is known for high heat fluxes at relatively small temperature differences. However, over the decades, technological innovations have demanded further augmentation in heat fluxes associated with boiling. Among the various active and passive methods, use of ultrasonic waves in boiling liquid has emerged as a proven technique for the required heat transfer improvement as demonstrated by a number of researchers. The present article reviews the application of ultrasonic waves in enhancing the heat transfer in various regimes of pool boiling. It has been found that the use of ultrasonic field is more promising in case of sub-cooled boiling as compared to saturated condition. Along with ultrasonic field of lower frequency and higher power, the usage of various passive techniques of surface improvement such as micro channel, surface topology, nano coatings etc. leads to further augmentation of heat transfer. Also, the relative placement of heating surface in ultrasonic wave field must be considered inevitably while designing an ultrasonic field assisted pool boiling system. It requires further investigations to conduct more parametric studies such as effect of pressure along with the usage of ultrasonic waves during sub- cooled boiling. Also during ultrasonic assisted pool boiling, various nano fluids can be tested for improving the heat transfer characteristics particularly in the saturated nucleate boiling regime.