A Study on Enhancement of Boiling Heat Transfer by Mixed-Wettability Surface

The enhancement of pool boiling heat transfer in FC-72 on a novel mixed-wettability surface was experimentally investigated. On the mixed-wettability surface, the micro-pin-finned area and the smooth area were distributed in the form of fractal by using micromaching method (dry etching method). From the comparison with the smooth surface and the micro-pin-finned surface, the mixed-wettability surface could efficiently enhance the heat transfer performance in the nucleate boiling region, and the critical heat flux was also efficiently improved. From the boiling experiment result, it is discovered that a larger heat transfer area does not always lead to a better heat transfer performance. From the peculiar boiling phenomenon of the novel surface, it can be observed that large number of nucleation sites are formed in the micro-pin-finned area, and the small bubbles grow, collide, merge and move rapidly to the nearby smooth channel. When the bubble grows large enough, it will departure quickly under the effect of channel pressure. It can be concluded that the mixed-wettability surface can not only guarantee sufficient nucleation sites, but also facilitate the departure of bubbles and enhance the bubbles' interaction.