Experimental study of nucleate boiling heat transfer enhancement by using surfactant

The main objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of adding definite amounts of three different surfactants to boiling distilled water on the nucleate pool boiling heat transfer performance using heated tube. The test surfactants are sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and sodium laurel ether sulfate (SLES) as anionic and Triton X-100 as nonionic. Also, effects of both of surfactants concentration, and the excess temperature DT on heat transfer performance are studied. The experimental investigations showed that the addition of definite amounts of aqueous anionic and nonionic surfactants (SDS, SLES and Triton X-100) to the cooling water improves its physical and thermal properties and in turn improves the heat transfer coefficient in percentages ranging from 133% for Triton X-100, 185% for SLFS and 241% for SDS. The surfactants concentration is correlated with the size distribution function’s constant (m, rst and Nmax/A) obtainedfrom measurements.