Effect of carbon nanofiber surface morphology on convective heat transfer from cylindrical surface: Synthesis, characterization and heat transfer measurement

•Morphologically different layer of carbon nanofibers are successfully synthesized.•Scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy is used to characterize the synthesized layer.•Heat transfer performance study was conducted for the different layers.

In this work, heat transfer surface modification is made by layers of carbon nanofiber (CNF) on a 50 μm nickel wire using Thermal chemical vapor deposition process (TCVD). Three different CNF layer morphologies are made, at 500 °C, 600 °C and 700 °C, to investigate the influence of morphology on heat transfer performance characteristics. Experimental results show that a CNF layer made at 500 °C behaves like an additional heat resistance, which is attributed to the dense structure of the layer of fibers. This results in 25% lower heat transfer compared to the heat transfer performance of the bare wire. However, samples made at 600 °C, exhibit a relatively porous layer of CNFs with relatively lower thermal conductivity compared to samples made 500 °C, resulting in an enhancement of 24%. This is because the relative porous structure leads to relatively better flow permeability which reduces the thermal resistance of the layer. Samples made at 700 °C are partly covered with a dense CNFs layer and partly with an amorphous layer of carbon. Heat transfer enhancement of 34% is achieved which is attributed to the combined effect of the highly conductive layer, high effective heat transfer surface area and rough surface morphology.