Nanofluids have been found to be widely used in many fields as new heat transfer medium. The results indicate that the main factors leading to the change of the heat transfer performance of nanofluids are the deposition of nanoparticles on the heat transfer surface
the change of the surface roughness of the heating surface
the change of the surface tension of the medium
the internal energy transfer and the bubble formation condition. The experimental study on pool boiling of water-based SiO2 nanofluids was carried out with different particle size of nanoparticles to obtain the difference of heat transfer characteristics between SiO2/water nanofluids and deionized water in the state of nucleate boiling in the saturated state
and to compare the heat transfer characteristics of nanofluids with different particle diameters. The results show that the heat transfer characteristics of nano-particles are quite different from that of the pure base fluid in the same state. The change of heat transfer characteristics between different particle sizes is obvious and the change of heat transfer characteristics does not increase linearly with the increase of particle size.