An Experimental Study of the Steel Cylinder Quenching in Water-based Nanofluids

Abstract

In this study, some parameters such as quenching and boiling curves of a stainless steel cylindrical rod 80 mm long and having a diameter of 15 mm were experimentally obtained in saturate pure water and two nanofluids (SiO₂ and TiO₂) with 0.01 wt%. The cylinder was vertically lowered into the pool of saturated water and its temporal center temperature was measured by a thermocouple. The boiling curves were then obtained by solving a transient one-dimensional inverse heat conduction model and measuring the temperature at the center of the cylinder. The images of the surface morphology and uniformity of the deposited SiO₂ and TiO₂ nano particles were captured by the scanning electron microscope (SEM). The cooling time during quenching of the cylinder was decreased about 50% by nanoparticles deposition. However, the SiO₂ and TiO₂ nano particle deposition have similar critical heat flux increment (up to 120%). Film boiling heat transfer rate increased by repetitive quenching in SiO₂ nanofluid.