Arvind Pattamatta

This paper reports results of experimental investigations on planar and three-dimensional wall jets over a flat surface. The local heat transfer coefficient is estimated at transient conditions with a semi-infinite approximation and at steady state conditions with a uniform wall heat flux boundary. Liquid crystal thermography and infrared thermography are used to map the surface temperatures. Experiments are performed for 2000 ≤ Re ≤ 8000 and 0 ≤ x/L ≤ 80. Results show that transient infrared thermography with semi-infinite approximation is a better candidate for the estimation of the heat transfer coefficient from wall jets.

The overall heat transfer of a cross flow heat exchanger can be enhanced by using the nanofluids as coolant, which finds application in reducing the size and weight of automobile radiator. However, improving the heat transfer using nanofluids can be accompanied by simultaneous variations in the required pumping power. This study experimentally evaluates the thermo-hydraulic performance of three nanofluids—metallic (copper, aluminum) and nonmetallic (multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT))—as coolant for an automobile radiator by utilizing an in-house test rig. An enhancement in overall heat transfer coefficient can be observed with nanocoolants (nanofluid as coolant), compared to the de-ionized water at the same Reynolds number. The maximum enhancement in the overall heat transfer coefficient was observed to be 40, 29, and 25% for MWCNT, copper, and aluminum nanofluids, respectively. The thermal performance of coolants was also compared with the same pumping power criterion. The overall heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids were higher than basefluid at low pumping power range and the trend changes with increase in the pumping power. The present study shows that the heat transfer characteristics at the same Reynolds number as well as at the same pumping power needs to be considered for the selection of appropriate nanocoolant for automobile radiator application.

In the present work, surface wettability modifications were utilized to enhance the phase change heat transfer in a water-charged two-phase flat thermosyphon. A flat thermosyphon's thermal performance with various surface wettability modifications on evaporator and condenser plates was investigated for various heat inputs and filling ratios in the horizontal orientation. The evaporator and condenser's surface wettabilities were varied to superhydrophilic (contact angle of 0-1°) and superhydrophobic (contact angle of 155.4 ± 3°). Changing the evaporator's surface wettability to superhydrophilic nature increased the thermal resistance of thermosyphon due to the high superheat requirement and delay during bubble nucleation. A 43.74% decrease in the thermal resistance was observed for a thermosyphon with a superhydrophobic condenser due to the dropwise condensation and faster condensate return to the evaporator compared to the bare one. A lumped parameter model was used to predict the thermal resistance of flat thermosyphon with a superhydrophobic condenser and hydrophilic evaporator, which is in good agreement with the experimental results. The experimental results encourage research on a two-phase flat thermosyphon with a superbiphilic evaporator and superhydrophobic condenser as it can further improve thermal performance.

The heat transfer performance of a pulsating heat pipe (PHP) configured as a three-dimensional (3D) structure is reported in the present study. The PHP structure resembles an elongated coil and termed "coil type PHP." Five different heating modes were created by positioning the evaporator at different locations and placing the PHP device in vertical and horizontal orientations. Studies were conducted primarily with de-ionized water as the working fluid. Limited number of experiments were also performed using binary fluids. The filling ratio was varied from 40% to 80%, while the heat input was varied from 20 W to 240 W. The vertical and horizontal orientations show almost 30 and 10 times reduction in the thermal resistance, respectively, compared with bare PHP tubes without the working fluid. This results in an effective thermal conductivity of more than 3000 W/(m K) and 12,000 W/(m K) for horizontal and vertical orientations, respectively. The use of the binary fluid (10 wt% and 20 wt% of ethanol aqueous solution) results in an increase in the maximum heat input at different heating modes. The temperature of the coolant supplied to the condenser section of the PHP was also varied, and the thermal resistance of the system was observed to reduce with an increase in the coolant temperature.