Enhanced pool boiling heat transfer on mini- and micro-structured surfaces

Abstract

The surfaces used for investigating nucleate pool boiling for four working fluids had mini- and micro-fins of variable configurations, cross-sections and pitches, restrained by perforated foil or mesh cloth with various pore/opening diameters. Unique enhanced structures on these surfaces formed a system of interconnected horizontal and vertical tunnels. Four structured surfaces were proposed, each being a system of subsurface tunnels connected to 10 and 5 mm fins or 1 and 0.5 mm mini-fins. Measurement results for boiling water, ethanol, Fluorinert FC-72 and R-123 from more than 60 samples constituted the database used to verify the proposed theoretical models. These models were based on the results from the visualization studies, including internal visualization allowing observation of bubble nucleation, growth and displacement inside the tunnels, and on the analysis of existing boiling models for mini- and micro-structures.