Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 28, 2025

Pool-Boiling Heat-Transfer Enhancement on Cylindrical Surfaces with Hybrid Wettable Patterns
Published on: April 10, 2017
Mechanistic insights into surface contribution towards heat transfer in a nanofluid
Ajit Singh1, Ramanujam Lenin1, Naimat Kalim Bari1
1Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Habitat Center Phase-X Mohali Punjab - 160062 India chandan@inst.ac.in +91 172 2211074 +91 172 2210075.
Abstract:
Nanofluids play a very important role in thermal management and heat exchange processes and for a stable nanofluid, a surfactant is a salient material. There are many contrasting reports on the thermal conductivity of nanofluids and the associated heat transport mechanism in nanofluids. In this article, four different types of nanoparticles are synthesized using citric acid and oleic acid as surfactants, followed by the assessment of their thermal conductivities. For a nanofluid of 3 wt% nanoparticles, coated with citric acid in water 67% reduction in thermal conductivity is observed, and on the other hand a 4% enhancement in thermal conductivity is observed for oleic acid-coated nanoparticles in toluene. This anomaly in the thermal transport behaviour of the nanofluid can be related to the surface properties of nanoparticles and the polarity of the base fluid. Theoretical calculation based on molecular dynamics simulations shows that the reduction in long-range interaction and fluid structuration reduce the thermal conductivity in a polar fluid with a polar surfactant coated nanoparticle.
Related Concept Videos
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer
Conduction, accounting for approximately 3% of body heat loss at rest, is the process of exchanging heat between molecules of two materials in direct contact. This can result in both heat loss and gain. For instance, when the body is submerged in water, which conducts heat 20 times more effectively than air, it can either lose or gain significant...
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer I
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer II
Mechanism of heat transfer
Surface Tension of Fluid
Surface tension varies...
Surface Tension and Surface Energy
Consider a beaker filled with liquid. The bulk molecules in the liquid experience equal attractive forces on all sides with the surrounding molecules. However, the surface molecules experience a net attractive force downward due to the bulk molecules. The surface of the liquid behaves like a stretched membrane,...

