Bistable Heat Transfer in a Nanofluid

Heat convection in water can be suppressed by adding a small amount of highly thermophilic nanoparticles. We show that such suppression is not effective when a suspension with uniform concentration of nanoparticles is suddenly heated from below. At Rayleigh numbers smaller than a sample dependent threshold Ra;{*} we observe transient oscillatory convection. Unexpectedly, the duration of convection diverges at Ra;{*}. Above Ra;{*} oscillatory convection becomes permanent and the heat transferred exhibits bistability. Our results are explained only partially and qualitatively by existing theories.