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Brunel University School of Engineering and Design PhD Theses

Combined effect of electric field and surface modification on pool boiling of R-123

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The effect of surface modification and high intensity electric field (uniform and non – uniform) acting separately or in combination on pool boiling of R-123 is presented in this thesis. The effect of surface modification was investigated on saturated pool boiling of R-123 for five horizontal copper surfaces modified by different treatments, namely: an emery polished surface, a fine sandblasted surface, a rough sandblasted surface, an electron beam (EB) enhanced surface and a sintered surface. Each 40 mm diameter heating surface formed the upper face of an oxygen-free copper block, electrically heated by embedded cartridge heaters. The experiments were performed from the convective heat transfer regime to the critical heat flux, with both increasing and decreasing heat flux, at 1.01 bar, and additionally at 2 bar and 4 bar for the emery polished surface. Significant enhancement of heat transfer with increasing surface modification was demonstrated, particularly for the EB enhanced and sintered surfaces. The emery polished and sandblasted surface results are compared with nucleate boiling correlations and other published data. The effect of uniform and non-uniform electric fields on saturated pool boiling of R-123 at 1.01 bar pressure was also examined. This method of heat transfer enhancement is known as electrohydrodynamic abbreviated as EHD-enhancement. A high voltage potential was applied at the electrode located above the heating surface, which was earthed. The voltage was varied from 0 to 30 kV. The uniform electric field was provided through a 40 mm diameter circular electrode of stainless steel 304 wire mesh having an aperture of 5.1 mm, while the non-uniform electric field was obtained by using a 40 mm diameter circular rod electrode with rods 5 and 8 mm apart. The effect of uniform electric field was investigated using all five modified surfaces, i.e. emery polished, fine sandblasted, rough sandblasted, EB enhanced and sintered surfaces, while non – uniform electric field was tested using the emery polished, fine sandblasted, EB enhanced and sintered surfaces. The effect of pressure on EHD enhancement was also examined using emery polished surface at saturation pressure of 2 and 4 bars while the electric field was fix at 20 kV corresponding to 2 MV/m. Further, the bubble dynamics is presented for the emery polished surface obtained using a high-speed high – resolution camera.

Degree

thesis:*
Grantor dc:publisher
Brunel University School of Engineering and Design PhD Theses
Year dc:date.issued
2012

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Ahmad, Syed Waqas
Advisors dc:contributor.advisor
  • Karayiannis, TG
  • Kenning, DBR
  • Lewis, JS

Subjects

dc:subject × 5

Rights

Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier.uri
http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/6600
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:bura.brunel.ac.uk:2438/6600

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Brunel
Base URL
bura.brunel.ac.uk/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Ahmad, Syed Waqas. Combined effect of electric field and surface modification on pool boiling of R-123. Brunel University School of Engineering and Design PhD Theses, 2012. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/6600