Design of a Smart Wettability-Regulating Surface for Enhancing Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Using the Lattice Boltzmann Method

Abstract

The wettability of a heating surface has a significant effect on boiling heat transfer (BHT). However, the requirements of the boiling process for surface wettability under different superheat levels change dynamically, and static wettability cannot meet this dynamic demand. Hence, based on the Rohsenow correlation and Kandlikar correlation, the best corresponding relationship between temperature and wettability was found, and a smart wettability-regulating surface with wettability varying with superheat was designed. The smart surface can easily nucleate at low superheat and has a high BHT coefficient, similar to the hydrophobic surface. Moreover, it can gradually delay the arrival of the critical heat flux as the wall superheat increases. The critical heat flux of the smart surface was the same as that of a hydrophilic surface and was 19.8% higher than that of a hydrophobic surface. It had the highest total BHT capacity, 13% better than that of a hydrophobic surface.

Multiphase Transportation, Conversion, & Utilization of Energy in Chemical Engineering: A Special Issue for MTCUE-2022

“…The overall model was 99.3% accurate and could predict moisture more accurately than a single measurement, as well as obtaining 3-D dynamic information on gas–solid two-phase flow. Hu et al investigated the effect of wettability of a heated surface during boiling heat transfer and designed a smart wettability-regulating surface whose wettability varies with superheat. The results indicated that critical heat flux of the smart surface was identical to that of the hydrophilic surface and 19.8% higher than that of the hydrophobic surface.…”