International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 75 (2016) 240–252

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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ichmt

Numerical investigation of non-uniform transverse magnetic field effects

on the swirling flow boiling of magnetic nanofluid in annuli☆
M. Mohammadpourfard a,⁎, H. Aminfar b, M. Karimi b
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Zip Code: 53751-71379, Tabriz, Iran
b
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Available online 29 April 2016 In this paper, swirling flow boiling of a dilute nanofluid (water and 0.1 vol%Fe3O4) in an annulus with a twisted fin
on the outside of the inner wall in the presence of transverse magnetic gradient has been numerically investigat-
Keywords: ed, using a two fluid model and a control volume technique. The results indicate that, in the boiling of swirling
Ferrofluid flow, the rate of the heat transfer increases. This phenomenon can be attributed to the effect of centrifugal
Two fluid model force on the liquid phase flow and also reduction of the conductive sub-layer thickness that exists on the heated
Swirling flow
wall. The effects of improved surface wettability induced by nanoparticle deposition during the boiling process
Non-uniform transverse magnetic field
Annulus
are accounted. The results demonstrate that the modified liquid property due to the existence of nanoparticles
Critical heat flux in the liquid has a negligible effect on the boiling heat transfer performance with dilute nanofluids while the im-
Heat transfer proved surface wettability plays an important role and leads to reduction of the void fraction and consequently,
an increase of critical heat flux. Applying a transverse magnetic field causes augmentation of the centrifugal force
and results in increased flow turbulence. Furthermore, in the presence of the magnetic field due to magnetic
force, the bubble departure diameter is reduced and bubble detachment occurs faster. Therefore, the critical
heat flux will be increased. Swirling flow boiling in the presence of magnetic field is strongly suggested in devices
requiring high heat transfer rates.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Swirl flows are used in different modern technologies. The use of
flow swirling is mainly aimed at heat transfer enhancement in power-
Boiling heat transfer is a mode of heat transfer that occurs with a engineering equipment, chemical technologies, and different industrial
change in phase from liquid to vapor. Because of the very high heat facilities [1]. In the literature, there are many studies that investigated
transfer rate in boiling, it has been used to cool devices requiring the hydrothermal behavior of swirling flow and several correlations
high heat transfer rates. But this kind of the heat transfer has a have been presented for evaluating the convective heat transfer coeffi-
limitation which is known as the critical heat flux. The critical heat cient and friction factor [2–4]. Gambill et al. [5,6] were the first to
flux condition is known by a sharp reduction of the local heat study the effect of flow swirling on heat transfer and its effect on the
transfer coefficient and a sharp increase in surface temperature, critical heat flux. They reported high CHFs, for water and ethylene gly-
which results from the replacement of liquid by vapor adjacent to col. Boscary et al. [7] experimentally investigated the CHF of water
the heat transfer surface. subcooled flow in swirl tube. Their experimental results are reasonably
Many different techniques have been considered for increasing well predicted by a correlation proposed by Celata et al. [8]. Akhavan-
the rate of heat transfer in forced convection and consequently in- Behabadi et al. [9] reported heat transfer enhancement and pressure
creasing the critical heat flux. Swirling flow, using nanofluid as drop characteristics during swirl flow boiling of R-134a. It should be
the working fluid and also applying an external magnetic field noted that, in all of these investigations swirling flow is promoted by in-
have been used in this study for investigating heat transfer sertion of a twisted tape in the circular tube.
enhancement. Nanofluids are colloidal suspensions engineered by dispersing nano-
sized particles in traditional heat transfer fluids such as water and re-
frigerants. Already, there have been significant amount of studies on
☆ Communicated by W.J. Minkowycz
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel./fax:+984134327566.
the effects of nanofluids on the boiling characteristics. Most of them in-
E-mail addresses: Mohammadpour@azaruniv.edu (M. Mohammadpourfard), vestigated critical heat flux. Vafaei et al. [10] experimentally investigat-
hh_aminfar@tabrizu.ac.irand (H. Aminfar), Masoud.Karimi91@ms.tabrizu.ac.ir ed the CHF of subcooled flow boiling of alumina nanofluid in a
(M. Karimi). horizontal microchannel. The experiment showed an increase of 51%

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2016.04.019
0735-1933/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M. Mohammadpourfard et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 75 (2016) 240–252 241

results demonstrated the strong magnetic field effects on single-phase

Nomenclature
hydro-thermal behavior. Recently, the subject of boiling flow of
ferrofluids under the effects of a magnetic field has been interested.
Alv interphase contact area (1/m)
Aminfar et al. [17] also conducted experimental studies on the effect
AQ wall fraction influenced by nucleating bubbles
of magnetic field on critical heat flux of ferrofluid flow boiling. The
cp specific heat capacity (J/KgK)
obtained results indicated that applying magnetic field caused an
db bubble mean diameter (m)
enhancement in CHF values of both pure water and ferrofluids. They
dbW bubble departure diameter (m)
attributed this phenomenon to changing water properties under the
f frequency (1/s)
! action of a magnetic field, single-phase convection heat transfer en-
f drag force (N)
!D hancement, suppression of nucleate boiling, and stabilization of boiling
fL lift force (N)
! flow.
fW wall lubrication force (N)
! The above-mentioned sparse investigations of flow boiling of the
f TD turbulent dispersion force (N)
! ferrofluid under the influence of magnetic field are limited to boiling
f VM Virtual mass force (N)
flow of the ferrofluid in a straight channel. These investigations don't in-
Hlv difference between specific enthalpies (J/Kg)
clude studies of the characteristic of swirling flow boiling and effects of
hC liquid single-phase heat transfer coefficient (W/m2K)
! centrifugal force in the presence of a magnetic field. The main aim of this
H magnetic field vector (A/m)
paper is to investigate swirling flow boiling of a water based ferrofluid
Hx magnetic field intensity component in x direction (A/m)
numerically under the effect of a non-uniform transverse magnetic
Hy magnetic field intensity component in y direction (A/m)
field.
I Electric intensity(=75 A)
kl liquid thermal conductivity (W/m K)
1.1. Problem description
kB Boltzmann constant (=1.3806503 × 10−23 J/K)
L Langevin function
In the first part of the present study, the influence of centrifugal force
M Magnetization (A/m)
on flow boiling is investigated. For this purpose, flow boiling of the
mp particle magnetic moment (Am2)
ferrofluid in a vertical annulus with three different heights of twisted
Na active nucleation site density(1/m2)
fins on the outside of the inner wall has been considered and the results
qT total heat flux (W/m2)
compared with the flow boiling in an annulus without fins and, finally,
qQ quenching heat flux (W/m2)
the height of the fin that from the aspect of the heat transfer perfor-
qC single-phase convection heat flux (W/m2)
mance, is more effective will be selected. These geometries are shown
qE evaporation heat flux (W/m2)
in Fig. 1 and their dimensions are summarized in Table 1. In the second
ri inner radius (m)
part of this work, the effects of magnetic field on swirling flow boiling
ro outer radius (m)
are investigated. As seen in Fig. 2, the applied magnetic field results
T temperature (K)
from a wire of current, which is located parallel with the longitudinal
u velocity (m/s)
axis and is also located in the center of the annulus. The working fluid
is a dilute ferrofluid (water and 0.1 vol% Fe3O4) and the properties of
Greek symbols
the fluid studied and the particles are presented in Table 2. It should
α void fraction
be noted that after selecting the desired geometry, deposition of nano-
ρ density (Kg/m3)
particles have also been considered.
μl liquid dynamic viscosity (Kg/m s)
μ0 magnetic permeability in vacuum (=4π× 10−7T m/A)
1.2. Governing equations
μB Bohr magneton(=9.27× 10−24Am2)
ξ Langevin parameter
As already noted, the magnetic field is due to the electric current
flowing through the wire, so the components of the magnetic field are
Subscripts
given by [18]:
b bubble
l liquid
m mean I x
v vapor H x ðx; yÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð1Þ
2π x2 þ y2
p particle

I y
in critical heat flux under very low nanoparticle concentrations (0.1 H y ðx; yÞ ¼ − pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð2Þ
2π x2 þ y2
vol%). It was found in their studies that nanoparticle deposition and a
subsequent modification of the boiling surface are common features as-
and the magnitude of the magnetic field intensity, is as follow:
sociated with nanofluids, which should be responsible for the different
boiling behaviors of nanofluids. Kim et al. [11] conducted CHF experi-
ments using water based alumina, zinc oxide and diamond nanofluids. I 1
H ðx; y; zÞ ¼ H ðx; yÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi : ð3Þ
The results indicated that CHF values of nanofluids were enhanced by 2π x2 þ y2
up to 40–50%, always obtained at the highest mass flux.
The effects of external magnetic field on thermomagnetic convection
of ferrofluids, which are special types of nanofluids, have been docu- The effects of magnetic field on the viscosity and the thermal con-
mented extensively by many researchers [12–16]. They presented that ductivity of the ferrofluid are considered negligible for this problem.
magnetizing force affects heat transfer rate and a strong magnetic Also, it is supposed that the flux of nanoparticles in the ferrofluid due
field can control of magnetic convection of ferrofluids. For instance, to magnetophoresis and imposed temperature gradient [15] is negligi-
Aminfar et al. [14–16] investigated the effects of different magnetic ble. In the present investigation for simulation of multiphase flow, the
field on single-phase heat transfer characteristics of ferrofluids. Their Eulerian–Eulerian model, which is known as the two-fluid model, has
242 M. Mohammadpourfard et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 75 (2016) 240–252

Fig. 1. Schematic geometry of physical model, (a) annulus without fin, (b) annulus with fin with height of 1 mm, (c)annulus with fin with height of 2 mm, (d) annulus with fin with height
of 4 mm, (e) used grid.

been used. The governing equations of the two-fluid model are as ∂½αρv uv  ! ! h  i
þ ∇  ½αρv uv uv  ¼ −ðα Þ ∇P þ ∇  α τv þ τv turb
follows [19]: ∂t   !
! !
þ Γ vl uv −Γ lv uv þ f vl ð7Þ
Continuity equation:
! !
∂½ð1−α Þρl  The term μ 0 ðM :∇Þ H in Eq. (6), generally represents the magnetic
þ ∇  ½ð1−α Þρl ul  ¼ Γ lv ð4Þ
∂t force due to magnetization per unit volume. M is the magnetization
and is given by [20]:
∂½αρv 
þ ∇  ½αρv uv  ¼ Γ lv ð5Þ  
∂t 6α p mp 1
M ¼ Ms LðξÞ ¼ cothðξÞ− ð9Þ
πdp
3 ξ
The mass transfer rate due to condensation in the bulk of the
subcooled liquid is represented byΓlv.
The unit cell of the crystal structure of magnetite has a volume of
Momentum equation: about 730 Å3 and contains 8 molecules of Fe3O4 and each of them has
a magnetic moment of 4μB [21]. Therefore, the particle magnetic
∂½ð1−α Þρl ul  ! ! h  i
þ ∇  ½ð1−α Þρl ul ul  ¼ −ð1−α Þ ∇P þ ∇  ð1−α Þ τ l þ τl turb moment for the magnetic particles is obtained as:
∂t
  ! ! !
! !
þ Γ lv ul −Γ vl ul þ f lv þ μ 0 M :∇ H 4μ B πdp
3
mp ¼ : ð10Þ
ð6Þ 6  91:25  10−30

Table 1
Dimension of studied geometries.

Inner diameter Outer diameter Height of fin Thickness of fin Length of channel

4 mm 12 mm 0, 1, 2 and 4 mm 0.05 mm 500 mm

 M. Mohammadpourfard et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 75 (2016) 240–252 243

Fig. 2. (a) The used geometry, (b) the position of the wire of electric current.

Also, the Langevin parameter ξ is as follows [20]: Interfacial transfer terms from the gas phase to the liquid phase are
represented byΓlv andflv in the momentum and energy equations.
μ 0 mp H In the present work, in order to investigate the treatment of the
ξ¼ : ð11Þ ferrofluid, the effective thermo-physical properties have been used.
kB T
These properties are calculated as follows:
Density:
By approximating the Langevin equation as [22]: 
ρm ¼ α p ρp þ 1−α p ρ f ð16Þ
 
1 1 μ 0 mp H
LðξÞ ¼ cothðξÞ− ¼ : ð12Þ Dynamic viscosity [23]:
ξ 3 kB T
 
5
μm ¼ 1 þ αp μ f ð17Þ
The magnetization can be considered as follows: 2

Thermal conductivity for spherical particle [24]:

6α p mp 1 μ 0 mp H
M ¼ Ms LðξÞ ¼ 3
: ð13Þ "  #
πdp 3 kB T kp þ 2k f −2α p k f −kp
km ¼  kf ð18Þ
kp þ 2k f þ α p k f −kp
Energy equation:
Specific heat
∂½ð1−α Þρl Hl  !    
þ ∇  ½ð1−α Þρl ul Hl  ¼ ∇  ½ð1−α ÞK l ∇T l  cp ρ ¼ α p cp ρ p þ 1−α p cp ρ f ð19Þ
∂t m
þ ðΓ lv H v −Γ vl H l Þ þ ql ð14Þ
The particle model is one of the sub-models of Eulerian–Eulerian
model which is used in present study. The particle model supposes
∂½αρv H v  ! that one of the phases is continuous and the other is dispersed. To con-
þ ∇  ½αρv uv Hv  ¼ ∇  ½αK v ∇T v  þ ðΓ vl H l −Γ lv Hv Þ þ qv ð15Þ sider the interfacial transfer between two phases, it is assumed that the
∂t
dispersed phase is present as spherical particles of main diameterdb. So,
the surface area per unit volume is calculated as follow:

Table 2 6α
Alv ¼ ð20Þ
Properties of the studied fluid and nanoparticle. db
Water Fe3O4
where α is the volume fraction of dispersed phase.
ρf = 777.37kg/m3 ρp = 5200kg/m3
cp, f = 5036.8J/kg . K cp,p = 670J/kg . K Interphase momentum transfer:
kf = 0.60415W/m . K kp = 6W/m .K For the dispersed bubbly flow for the nucleate subcooled boiling
μf = 0.00010001Pa . s
processes, the interfacial momentum transfer is considered in
244 M. Mohammadpourfard et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 75 (2016) 240–252

! Table 4
terms of the drag forceð f D Þdue to the hydrodynamic resistance and
Working and boundary conditions used in reference [36].
!
the non-drag forces, which include: lift force ð f L Þ , turbulent
! ! Inlet Outlet Working Mass flux Inner wall Outer wall
dispersion forceðf TD Þ, wall lubrication forceð f W Þand virtual mass temperature pressure pressure heat flux heat flux
!
forceðf VM Þ. 42.7∘ C 0MPa 269kPa 784kg/m2 . s 95kW/m2 0kW/m2
The above-mentioned forces are modeled according to Ishii and
Zuber [25], Tomiyama [26], Burns et al. [27], Antal et al. [28] and
Zuber [29], respectively. The determination of the bubble departure diameter is doubtlessly a
key characteristic in modeling of subcooled nucleate boiling. In this
Wall boiling model: study, the Tolubinsky and Kostanchuk expression [34] is used:
In the present study, the model proposed by Kurul and Podowki [30]
is implemented. The basic idea in this model is that the heat transfer dbW ¼ minfdref  expð−ΔT sub =ΔT ref Þ; d max g ð28Þ
originates from three different mechanisms between the heated wall
and the liquid phase: wheredref = 0.6mm, ΔTref = 45Kand dmax = 1.4mm.

qT ¼ qC þ qQ þ qE ð21Þ 1.3. Boundary conditions

whereqC, qEand qQare, respectively, single-phase convective heat flux, The steady-state computational model has been implemented. For
evaporation heat flux and quenching heat flux. The evaporation heat the liquid phase, the no-slip, and for the gas phase, a free slip boundary
flux can be calculated as a function of parameters: the nucleation site condition has been used. Constant heat flux boundary condition has
densityNa, the detachment frequency f and the bubble departure been adopted on the inner wall, also the outer wall and fin are assumed
diameterdbW. It is given by: to be adiabatic. The inlet velocity and its temperature are considered to
π 3
be uniform at the inlet. A pressure boundary condition is applied at the
qE ¼ d f Na Hlv : ð22Þ outlet. The boundary conditions are summarized in Table 3.
6 bW

Del Valle and Kenning [31] derived an analytical solution for the 1.4. Numerical method
quenching heat flux, assuming a transient heat transfer in a liquid cylin-
der with a diameter equal to dbW. The above set of coupled differential equations has been discretized
with the control volume technique. For the convective and diffusive
h i
2 terms a second order upwind method was used while the SIMPLEC pro-
AQ ¼ min 1; Na πdbW ð23Þ
cedure has been introduced for the velocity–pressure coupling. For
computing the bubble induced turbulence viscosity, Sato's [35] eddy
viscosity model has been implemented. The SSTk − ω turbulence
2K l ðT W −T l Þ model is employed for the continuous phase while the dispersed
qQ ¼ AQ sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð24Þ vapor phase remains laminar.
πK l
Due to a lack of similar experimental work with the present study
f ρl cpl
and the desired geometry, in order to indicate the validity and also
accuracy of the two fluid model, the results of experimental work of
Single-phase convective heat flux is simply formulated by the Roy et al. [36] has been reproduced. In the experimental work of
following: [36], flow boiling of R-113 in a vertical annulus is investigated. Work-
ing and boundary conditions used in this experiment are presented in

qC ¼ 1−AQ hC ðT W −T l Þ ð25Þ Table 4. Here, due to symmetry of geometry, the test section has been
modeled as a 45∘ sector of the annular channel and a structured grid
where hC is the turbulent heat transfer coefficient. Egorov and Menter has been used. The result of a grid independency test is shown in
[32] modeledhCby using the turbulent wall function.
The nucleation site density depends mostly on the material proper-
ties of the wall and the wall superheat. The data published by Lemmert
and Chawla [33] lead to the following correlation:

Na ¼ ð185ðT W −T l ÞÞ1:805 : ð26Þ

Bubble detachment frequency is calculated by the correlation of

Kurul and Podowski [30]:
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
4g ðρl −ρv Þ
f ¼ : ð27Þ
3dbW ρl

Table 3
Working and boundary conditions used in this study for subcooled boiling.

Inlet Outlet Working Mass flux Inner wall Outer wall and
temperature pressure pressure heat flux fin heat flux

520K 0MPa 5MPa 311kg/m2 . s 350kW/m2 0kW/m2

Fig. 3. Grid independency test for reference.
 M. Mohammadpourfard et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 75 (2016) 240–252 245

Fig. 4. Comparison of the numerical results with the experimental ones: (a) void fraction, (b) Temperature of liquid phase.

Fig. 3 and, according to this figure, the number of 20, 6 and 100 nodes ensure that the estimated results are grid independent and, finally, for
have been selected in the radial, circumferential and axial, directions the annuli with fin, the computational domain has been divided in to
respectively. Fig. 4 shows a comparison of the two fluid model results 30, 34 and 125 nodes in the radial, circumferential and axial directions
for void fraction and temperature of liquid phase with experimental respectively. Also in the case of an annulus without fin, the grid
values of Roy et al. [36]. As seen, there is very good agreement be- consisted of 30, 40 and 125 nodes. According to Figs. 5, 6, 7 and 8 for
tween them. the annuli with fin and annulus without fin, increasing the grid numbers
Despite the asymmetric geometry, a structured grid has been used does not change significantly the void fraction and axial liquid phase ve-
(see Fig. 1-e). Several different grid distributions are examined to locity at the height of 0.27 m.

Fig. 5. Grid independency test for annulus with fin with height of 1 mm, (a) axial velocity, (b) void fraction.

Fig. 6. Grid independency test for annulus with fin with height of 2 mm, (a) axial velocity, (b) void fraction.
246 M. Mohammadpourfard et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 75 (2016) 240–252

Fig. 7. Grid independency test for annulus with fin with height of 4 mm, (a) axial velocity, (b) void fraction.

height of the fin, a variation of this parameter is selected as the criterion.

Fig. 9a shows the radial distribution of void fraction on a line that is
shown in the Fig. 9b, for four different geometries. As it can be seen in
Fig. 9a, the void fraction on the heated wall is approximately equal for
all geometries but at the maximum of the diagram, this parameter is
the minimum in the case of a fin with height of 2 mm. Also, in order
to further investigate, this distribution is depicted in Fig. 10a at a posi-
tion near the fin (see Fig. 10b). Fig. 10a reveals that in the vicinity of
the fin, the void fraction is minimum in the case of fin with height of
4 mm.
According to Figs. 9a and 10a, it can be deduced that the void
fraction significantly depends on the position relative to the fin.
Therefore, for choosing the most effective fin, the average of evapo-
rative mass flux at various sections along the channel has been in-
vestigated as shown in Fig. 11. This figure indicates that with all
of the geometries with fins relative to annuli without fin, less than
the input mass flux is converted to steam. So it can be concluded
that inserting a spiral fin on the inner wall of the annular channel
will lead to improvement the boiling heat transfer. Furthermore,
Fig. 8. Grid independency test for annulus without fin.
among the fins, the fin with height of 4 mm is shown to have the
highest heat transfer performance. Hence, the annulus with a fin
with height of 4 mm is selected as the main geometry to resume
1.5. Results and discussion with the investigation.
In order to investigate the reasons for the improvement of heat
One of the most sensitive and critical parameters in the two phase transfer in geometries with fins, the hydrodynamic behavior of the liq-
flow is the void fraction of the gas phase. To investigate the effects of uid phase will be discussed first. In Fig. 12, the circumferential velocity

Fig. 9. (a) Radial distribution of void fraction, (b) the line depicted at the height of 0.36 m and positive y axes direction.
 M. Mohammadpourfard et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 75 (2016) 240–252 247

Fig. 10. (a) Radial distribution of void fraction, (b) the line depicted at the height of 0.36 m and negative y axes direction.

profile of the liquid phase is illustrated. According to this figure, the spi- thickness in the case of annulus with fin at a height of 4 mm is less
ral fin will create a circumferential velocity in the bulk of the fluid and than the case of annulus without fin and consequently, the thermal re-
the maximum velocities occur in the case of the fin with a height of sistance due to this layer is lower.
4 mm. This phenomenon causes an increase of fluid mixing between
the core and the flow near the heated wall. Also, the presence of the
fin decreases the hydraulic diameter and results in an increase of flow
velocity.
Centrifugal force due to the presence of the spiral fin on the heat-
ed wall is another parameter that can be effective on enhancing the
heat transfer performance. In the present study, this force was dem-
onstrated with centrifugal acceleration. In Fig. 13, there is a compar-
ison between centrifugal acceleration resulting from several
different height of fin and as expected, centrifugal acceleration in
the case of fin with the height of 4 mm is higher than other cases.
Due to the centrifugal force, the hot liquid on the heated wall is
moved to the outer wall and the liquid with lower temperature will
replace it. This phenomenon is well shown by the liquid phase
stream lines in Fig. 14.
From the thermal behavior viewpoint, the decrease of conductive
sub-layer thickness can be a reason for the increase of turbulent heat
transfer in single phase swirling flow. In the present work, to investigate
this issue, the correlation of δ = K/h is implemented. In Fig. 15, this pa-
rameter is demonstrated and it is seen that conductive sub-layer
Fig. 12. The effect of height of the fin on circumferential velocity of liquid phase.

Fig. 11. Comparison between average of evaporative mass flux along the channel. Fig. 13. Comparison between centrifugal acceleration.
248 M. Mohammadpourfard et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 75 (2016) 240–252

Fig. 14. The effect of centrifugal force on stream lines of liquid phase.

boiled surface and ferrofluid boiled surfaces 72∘ and 19∘, respectively
were selected. In order to investigate the influence of surface wetta-
bility on nucleation site density, the correlation proposed by Basu
[37] was implemented. Fig. 16 is drawn for nucleation site density
versus wall superheat. It is seen that this nucleation site density in
boiling of ferrofluid is lower than that in boiling of pure fluid. It
means that with enhancement of surface wetting, the nucleation
site density decreases, which is in agreement with descriptions of
Wang and Dhir [38]. It can be concluded that an increase of surface
wettability and flooding of some active sites causes decreases in nu-
cleation site density.
The reduction of liquid droplet contact angle not only causes some
cavities on the heater surface to be flooded, but also has a significant ef-
fect on bubble departure diameter. Based on the Fritz correlation [39],
which has been used for calculating the bubble departure diameter in
this study, a bubble is detached from the surface at a lower diameter
by reducing the contact angle. This issue is illustrated in Fig. 17. Fig. 18
shows images of flow boiling from the experiment by Aminfar et al.
[17] that confirm the results in Fig. 17.
Another parameter that is affected by deposition of nanoparticles is
Fig. 15. Comparison of conductive sub-layer thickness. bubble detachment frequency. In reference [40], a correlation has been
proposed for considering the effect of change in contact angle on bubble
detachment frequency and it has been used in this investigation. Fig. 19
In this study, a dilute ferrofluid (water and 0.1 vol%Fe3O4) has been indicates bubble detachment frequency by considering the reduction of
used. Thermo-physical properties of ferrofluid were calculated by corre- bubble departure diameter and, as expected, this parameter is increased
lations 15–18 and are shown in Table 5. As seen in Table 5, the changes by deposition of nanoparticles.
in the properties of the base fluid and the ferrofluid are very low. So, it is As mentioned above, deposition of nanoparticles on the heater sur-
evident that in the dilute ferrofluid, thermo-physical properties of face causes an increase of surface wettability. Enhancement of surface
ferrofluid have negligible effect on the reported boiling heat transfer wettability leads to an increase of liquid film stability on the surface
enhancement. and, consequently, an increased portion of heat flux is removed by the
For considering the effects of nanoparticle deposition, according mechanism of single phase convection. Also, given the finding in
to reference [17], the liquid droplet contact angle for a pure water Figs. 16, 17 and 19 the void fraction of gaseous phase is decreased, as

Table 5
Comparison of properties of pure fluid and ferrofluid.

Property Density(kg/m3) Thermal conductivity(W/m K) Viscosity (Pa s) Specific heat(J/kg K)

Pure fluid 777.37 0.60415 0.00010001 5036.8

Ferrofluid 0.1% v 781.792 (+0.57%) 0.6055077 (+0.22%) 0.00010026 (+0.25%) 5007.75 (−0.57%)
 M. Mohammadpourfard et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 75 (2016) 240–252 249

Fig. 16. Comparison of pure fluid and ferrofluid nucleation site density.

Fig. 18. Comparison of pure and ferrofluid boiling characteristics at a constant mass. flux;
(left) pure water, (right) ferrofluid.
illustrated in Fig. 20. So, by considering void fraction as a criterion for
identifying critical heat flux, this limitation will be enhanced consider-
ably by using ferrofluid as a working fluid. Fig. 22 compares centrifugal acceleration of ferrofluid in the pres-
The applied magnetic field is due to a wire of electric current that is ence or absence of a magnetic field. Since the magnetic field exerts a
located in the center of the annulus and also is located parallel with the body force similar to that of a centrifugal force due to presence of the
longitudinal axis. To study the effects of a magnetic field, ferrofluid sin- fin on the heated wall, the amount of this parameter is greater in the vi-
gle phase convective heat transfer in the presence of field is first cinity of the heated wall where the Kelvin force is higher.
investigated. In the presence of a magnetic field, the velocity of a fluid in the vicin-
The electric current produces a non-uniform transverse magnetic ity of the heated wall is increased and, as a result, causes enhancement
gradient in the x and y directions that is perpendicular to the flow direc- by mixing of the fluid and turbulence of the flow in this region. This
tion. Hence, in the present work, this force is applied in the direction of change in the velocity leads to increases in the single-phase heat trans-
the outer wall. The radial distribution of Kelvin force, by magnitude, is fer coefficient, which is depicted in Fig. 23. Furthermore, some other ef-
indicated in Fig. 21. As it can be seen, because the heated wall is at a fects of applying a magnetic field on two phase flow characteristics
minimum distance from the wire, the magnitude of the Kelvin force including bubble departure diameter and bubble detachment frequen-
on this wall is a maximum and with distance from the wire as nonlinear cy, have been also investigated in this study. The correlation proposed
is reduced.

Fig. 17. Bubble departure diameter on heated wall. Fig. 19. Bubble detachment frequency on heated wall.
250 M. Mohammadpourfard et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 75 (2016) 240–252

Fig. 22. Effects of transverse non-uniform magnetic field on centrifugal acceleration.

Fig. 20. Comparison of the average of void fraction in various section along the channel.

identifying the critical heat flux, it is seen that by applying a transverse

by Junhong et al. [41], which is an expression for bubble departure di- non-uniform magnetic field, the average void fraction is decreased and
ameter in pool boiling of water-based fluid in the presence of a magnet- consequently the critical heat flux will be increased, significantly. For a
ic field, were used. more detailed study of this phenomenon, Fig. 27 has been drawn for
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi the evaporative heat flux in the presence and absence of a magnetic
σ field. From Fig. 26, it can be concluded that applying a magnetic field
dbW ¼ f ðθÞ
ðρl −ρv Þg þ μ 0 M∇H in swirling flow boiling of ferrofluid, the amount of phase change from
liquid to gas is decreased and results in a decrease in the generation of
where f(θ) is the function of the contact angle and μ0M∇His due to the vapor bubbles. This is due to the increased portion of the heat flux
magnetic field. According to this correlation, bubble departure diameter that is removed by the mechanism of single phase convection and also
is decreased in the presence of a magnetic field. Also, based on a corre- changes in two phase flow characteristic.
lation that was mentioned in reference [40] for calculating the bubble
detachment frequency, this parameter has an inverse relation with bub-
ble departure diameter. Hence, bubble detachment frequency increases 2. Conclusion
by applying a magnetic field. This means that in presence of magnetic
field, the bubbles are smaller in size and more quickly detached from This paper involves a numerical study of subcooled swirling flow
the surface. This issue is demonstrated in Figs. 24 and 25. boiling of a water based ferrofluid by using a two fluid model and a con-
Fig. 26 shows, the average of void fraction over a length of channel. trol volume technique. Also, the effects of a transverse non-uniform
As mentioned above, by considering void fraction as a criterion for magnetic field on the single phase and two phase flow characteristic

Fig. 23. Comparison of the single phase convective heat transfer coefficient in presence
Fig. 21. Radial variation of Kelvin force (at height of 0.4 m). and absence of field.
 M. Mohammadpourfard et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 75 (2016) 240–252 251

Fig. 24. Effect of magnetic field on bubble departure diameter on the heated wall.
Fig. 26. comparison of the average of void fraction in presence and absence of field.

are investigated. The results indicate that by inserting a spiral fin on the

inner wall of an annulus, a centrifugal force will be generated. This force
leads to hot liquid on the heated wall being moved away and also the
thickness of the conductive sub-layer will be decreased. Therefore, the
rate of heat transfer is enhanced and the evaporative mass flux de-
creases. It means that in this kind of the flow boiling, relative to straight
flow boiling, less of the input mass flux is converted to the steam. Based
on the obtained results, in the flow boiling of a dilute ferrofluid, changes
in thermo-physical properties is negligible. It can be concluded that re-
ducing the contact angle and improving the surface wettability play an
important role in observed heat transfer enhancement. By applying the
magnetic field, a force will be exerted to the ferrofluid perpendicular to
the direction of the ferrofluid flow. Due to this force, the centrifugal
force is intensified and turbulence increases. In presence of the magnet-
ic field, the portion of heat flux that is absorbed by the mechanism of
single phase convection increases and, as a result, fewer vapor bubbles
are generated.

Fig. 27. Effect of magnetic field on heat flux which absorbed by mechanism of evaporation.

The above mentioned results demonstrate that by inserting a spiral

fin on the inner wall of the annulus and using ferrofluid as working
fluid, single phase convective heat transfer increases and therefore crit-
ical heat flux will be increased as one of the most important parameters
in two phase flow. Also, applying a transverse non-uniform magnetic
field can lead to additional enhancement in critical heat flux.

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