Heat Transfer Enhancement During Water and Hydrocarbon Condensation on Lubricant Infused Surfaces

Abstract

Vapor condensation is routinely used as an effective means of transferring heat or separating fluids. Dropwise condensation, where discrete droplets form on the condenser surface, offers a potential improvement in heat transfer of up to an order of magnitude compared to filmwise condensation, where a liquid film covers the surface. Low surface tension fluid condensates such as hydrocarbons pose a unique challenge since typical hydrophobic condenser coatings used to promote dropwise condensation of water often do not repel fluids with lower surface tensions. Recent work has shown that lubricant infused surfaces (LIS) can promote droplet formation of hydrocarbons. In this work, we confirm the effectiveness of LIS in promoting dropwise condensation by providing experimental measurements of heat transfer performance during hydrocarbon condensation on a LIS, which enhances heat transfer by ≈450% compared to an uncoated surface. We also explored improvement through removal of noncondensable gases and highlighted a failure mechanism whereby shedding droplets depleted the lubricant over time. Enhanced condensation heat transfer for low surface tension fluids on LIS presents the opportunity for significant energy savings in natural gas processing as well as improvements in thermal management, heating and cooling, and power generation.

Oil-Impregnated Hydrocarbon-Based Polymer Films

“…Slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) exhibit remarkable properties such as ultra-low contact angle hysteresis (CAH) for a wide variety of liquids 1 , 2 , excellent self-healing capability 2 , 3 , and stability under high pressures or temperatures 2 , 4 , 5 . In addition to repelling liquids, SLIPS have been shown to promote anti-fouling 6 – 13 , self-cleaning 1 , 2 , 14 , anti-icing 15 – 20 , reduced drag 21 – 24 and enhanced phase-change heat transfer 25 – 31 .…”

Review of Micro–Nanoscale Surface Coatings Application for Sustaining Dropwise Condensation

“…Lately, Preston et al [139] experimented with the condensation of water and toluene and found that htc was 4.5 times higher with the implementation of LIS. Nevertheless, they noticed that with the passage of time, condensation mode changes from DWC to FWC due to lubricant depletion.…”

Reliability of R2R-printed, flexible electrodes for e-clothing applications

“…In addition, the presence of water and detergents accelerates the degradation process 57 . Although some reports examine the effect of washing on the printed electrodes' behavior, more research is needed to fully understand the impact of the electrode shape and material on the phenomena occurring during washing [58][59][60][61][62] .…”