Experimental Investigation of Nucleate Pool Boiling Characteristics Using SiO2 Nanofluids

Boiling is one of the most effective mechanisms for heat removal, enabling the dissipation of high heat fluxes at relatively low temperature differences. This makes it particularly useful in applications such as electronic cooling, power systems, and energy engineering. In this study, heat-transfer enhancement during the boiling of water and water-based silicon dioxide (SiO2) nanofluids at concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 1 wt.% under atmospheric pressure was analyzed. The heat-transfer surfaces consisted of copper samples with a roughness of Ra = 0.143 μm. The aim of this study was to determine how the addition of SiO2 nanoparticles to the working fluid influences heat flux and the heat-transfer coefficient under nucleate boiling conditions. The results demonstrated that the use of SiO2/water nanofluids can modify the characteristics of the pool boiling process. The maximum achieved heat flux reached approximately 1704.2 kW m−2, while the heat-transfer coefficient exceeded 55.4 kW m−2K−1. The obtained results confirm that the addition of silicon dioxide nanoparticles can significantly increase the critical heat flux in nucleate boiling systems, particularly in applications requiring intensive heat removal for cooling. The findings demonstrate that SiO2 nanofluids hold significant potential for high-heat-flux applications, particularly in the thermal management of miniaturized electronic systems and advanced power engineering.