Effect of CuO nanolubricant on R134a pool boiling heat transfer

This paper quantifies the influence of CuO nanoparticles on the boiling performance of R134a/polyolester mixtures on a roughened, horizontal, flat surface. A lubricant based nanofluid (nanolubricant) was made with a synthetic ester and CuO particles. For the 0.5% nanolubricant mass fraction, the nanoparticles caused a heat transfer enhancement relative to the heat transfer of pure R134a/polyolester (99.5/0.5) of between 50% and 275%. A smaller enhancement was observed for the R134a/nanolubricant (99/1) mixture, which had a heat flux that was on average 19% larger than that of the R134a/polyolester (99/1) mixture. Further increase in the nanolubricant mass fraction to 2% resulted in a still smaller boiling heat transfer improvement of approximately 12% on average. Thermal conductivity measurements and a refrigerant/lubricant mixture pool-boiling model were used to suggest that increased thermal conductivity is responsible for only a small portion of the heat transfer enhancement due to nanoparticles.