Evaporation of nanofluid droplet on heated surface

Abstract

In this study, an experiment on the evaporation of nanofluid sessile droplet on a heated surface was conducted. A nanofluid of 0.5% volumetric concentration mixed with 80-nm-sized CuO powder and pure water were used for experiment. Droplet was applied to the heated surface, and images of the evaporation process were obtained. The recorded images were analyzed to find the volume, diameter, and contact angle of the droplet. In addition, the evaporative heat transfer coefficient was calculated from experimental result. The results of this study are summarized as follows: the base diameter of the droplet was maintained stably during the evaporation. The measured temperature of the droplet was increased rapidly for a very short time, then maintained constantly. The nanofluid droplet was evaporated faster than the pure water droplet under the experimental conditions of the same initial volume and temperature, and the average evaporative heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluid droplet was higher than that of pure water. We can consider the effects of the initial contact angle and thermal conductivity of nanofluid as the reason for this experimental result. However, the effect of surface roughness on the evaporative heat transfer of nanofluid droplet appeared unclear.