Effect of surfactant concentration on the beginning of intensive cooling regime in subcooled water

The work aims to study the beginning of an intensive heat transfer regime during quenching process, when high-temperature bodies are cooled in liquids. This process occurred in numerous applications such as metal treatment and NPP safety systems. The experiments were carried out by cooling a high-temperature nickel sphere in subcooled liquids with different subcoolings to the saturation temperature. The experiments were conducted in pure water and in water-surfactant solutions with various concentrations under atmospheric pressure. The surfactant was sulfonol (alkylbenzene sulfonate), which added to cooling water. The concentrations of sulfonol were 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2%. The obtained temperature-time dependences (cooling thermograms) and data on the transition temperatures made it possible to reveal the regularities of the influence of sulfonol concentration in the cooling water on the beginning of the intensive cooling regime. Furthermore, experiments have demonstrated a strong influence of surface condition, its oxidation and contamination.