•Superbiphilic surfaces are fabricated by CVD hydrophobization and laser texturing.•Influence of spot size, pitch and scale on boiling performance is investigated.•Optimal fraction of ...superhydrophobic areas is found to be approx. 23%.•Spot pitch has a greater influence on boiling performance than spot diameter.•Both heat transfer coefficient and CHF are enhanced using superbiphilic surfaces.
In this study, the optimal surface pattern of low and high wettability regions for enhanced boiling heat transfer is investigated using aluminum superbiphilic surfaces. Samples are fabricated by combining chemical vapor deposition of a fluorinated silane to turn them superhydrophobic and nanosecond laser texturing to render selected areas superhydrophilic. Triangular lattice pattern of superhydrophobic circular spots is utilized with spot diameters between 0.25 mm and 1.0 mm and pitch values of 0.5–2.5 mm. Pool boiling heat transfer performance of superbiphilic surfaces is evaluated using saturated water at atmospheric pressure. A strong wettability contrast is shown to be important in ensuring high heat transfer performance of wettability-patterned surfaces. Highest heat transfer performance is achieved using 0.5 mm diameter spots with a spot pitch of 1 mm and a corresponding superhydrophobic area fraction of approx. 23%. The optimal pitch value will provide a high density of potentially active nucleation sites but still allow for the development of the thermal boundary layer thus not inhibiting the activation of neighboring spots. The size of (super)hydrophobic spots appears not to have a major influence on the boiling performance when using the optimal spot pitch. The developed superbiphilic surfaces increase the CHF and provide greatly enhanced heat transfer coefficients especially at medium and high heat fluxes, making them suitable especially for high-heat-flux applications.
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Functionalized interfaces enhancing phase-change processes have immense applicability in thermal management. Here, a methodology for fabrication of surfaces enabling extreme boiling heat transfer ...performance is demonstrated, combining direct nanosecond laser texturing and chemical vapor deposition of a hydrophobic fluorinated silane. Multiple strategies of laser texturing are explored on aluminum with subsequent nanoscale hydrophobization. Both superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic surfaces with laser-engineered microcavities exhibit significant enhancement of the pool boiling heat transfer. Surfaces with superhydrophobic microcavities allow for enhancements of a heat transfer coefficient of over 500%. Larger microcavities with a mean diameter of 4.2 μm, achieved using equidistant laser scanning separation, induce an early transition into the favorable nucleate boiling regime, while smaller microcavities with a mean diameter of 2.8 μm, achieved using variable separation, provide superior performance at high heat fluxes. The enhanced boiling performance confirms that the Wenzel wetting regime is possible during boiling on apparently superhydrophobic surfaces. A notable critical heat flux enhancement is demonstrated on superhydrophobic surfaces with an engineered microstructure showing definitively the importance and concomitant effect of both the surface wettability and topography for enhanced boiling. The fast, low-cost, and repeatable fabrication process has great potential for advanced thermal management applications.
Nucleate boiling enables effective cooling and heat transfer at low temperature differences between a heated surface and the surrounding fluid. It is utilized in many applications, ranging from large ...power plants to small microelectronics. To enhance the boiling process by minimization of the surface temperature and increase the maximum attainable heat flux, several approaches for surface modifications were recently developed. However, each of them has at least one important drawback, including challenging and expensive production, mechanical and/or thermal instability or problematic scale-up. Herein, a straightforward, robust and flexible method using a nanosecond fiber laser for production of surfaces with multi-scale micro-cavities (with diameters ranging from 0.2 to 10 μm) is developed. Examination of these surfaces in two very contrasting fluids - water, which is polar, has high surface tension and high latent heat of vaporization; and non-polar, dielectric tetradecafluorohexane (FC-72) with low surface tension and much lower latent heat - confirms that such surfaces enable enhanced heat transfer and controlled boiling in combination with diverse fluids. This demonstration suggests that the developed method has the potential to overcome the current limitations for further miniaturization of microelectronic devices and to increase performance and safety in high heat flux systems.
•Surfaces with periodically changed wettability were produced by a ns marking laser.•Heat transfer was investigated on uniformly and non-uniformly wettable surfaces.•Microporous surfaces with ...non-uniform wettability enhance boiling heat transfer.•The most bubble nucleations were observed in the vicinity of the microcavities.•Results agree with the predictions of the nucleation criteria.
Microstructured uniformly and non-uniformly wettable surfaces were created on 25-μm-thin stainless steel foils by laser texturing using a marking nanosecond Nd:YAG laser (λ=1064nm) and utilizing various laser fluences and scan line separations. High-speed photography and high-speed IR thermography were used to investigate nucleate boiling heat transfer on the microstructured surfaces. The most pronounced results were obtained on a surface with non-uniform microstructure and non-uniform wettability. The obtained results show up to a 110% higher heat transfer coefficients and 20–40 times higher nucleation site densities compared to the untextured surface. We show that the number of active nucleation sites is significantly increased in the vicinity of microcavities that appeared in areas with the smallest (10μm) scan line separation. Furthermore, this confirms the predictions of nucleation criteria and proves that straightforward, cost-effective nanosecond laser texturing allows the production of cavities with diameters of up to a few micrometers and surfaces with non-uniform wettability. Additionally, this opens up important possibilities for a more deterministic control over the complex boiling process.
•This study involves water pool boiling on laser-induced multi-scale micro-cavities.•Different 1D and 2D arrangements of boiling patterns were made on heater foils.•The two-dimensional designs did ...not perform better than the one-dimensional ones.•Capillary length was found to be optimal spacing between laser textured regions.•Fully treated sample expressed the highest (1200 kW/m2) heat flux prior to burnout.
This investigation used laser-processed 25-μm-thick stainless steel foils as heaters in pool boiling experiments under subcooled and saturated conditions at atmospheric pressure. Boling surfaces were modified by a nanosecond fiber laser. In most cases, laser-textured parts on boiling surfaces were spaced apart by a capillary length of water (2.5 mm) and had different shapes and arrangements. Multi-scale micro-cavities (with diameters ranging from 0.2 to 10 μm) on the laser-textured areas of the surfaces provided potential active nucleation sites. The highest heat flux measured before the burnout was observed on the fully treated sample; this heat flux was a factor of 3.7 greater than that of the untreated sample. The sample with hexagonally arranged textured circular shapes with a diameter of 2.0 mm provided a more than 4-fold higher heat transfer coefficient compared to the untreated sample. All of the laser-textured boiling surfaces showed enhanced pool boiling heat transfer performance in comparison to the untreated surface. The optimal spacing between the laser-textured regions was experimentally found to be equal to the capillary length of the working fluid. Our results demonstrate that laser texturing has strong potential for producing patterned surfaces for engineering applications of boiling heat transfer.
•Cavity- and spear-type TiO2 nanostructures are prepared by hydrothermal treatment.•Nucleation-promoting cavity morphology is superior to spear-like microstructure.•Hydrophobic surface with ...microcavities (CTH) provides HTC enhancement of over 200%.•High nucleation site density on CHT surface narrows surface temperature distribution.•ONB at 2.5 K and Db of 0.55 mm are observed on hydrophobic microcavity surface.
Surface engineering aimed at tuning the wettability and morphology of the boiling surface is a facile approach to moderate and enhance the nucleate boiling process. Key issues include control over the active nucleation site density, bubble departure frequency and liquid replenishment of active nucleation sites while simultaneously reducing the bubble nucleation temperature. In this study, we fabricated spear-type (ST) and cavity-type (CT) TiO2 nanostructures on 25 μm titanium foils via hydrothermal etching in an alkaline solution. High-speed IR and video cameras were used to detect local phenomena in terms of temperature and heat flux fluctuations and observe the bubble dynamics during saturated pool boiling of water. Intrinsically hydrophilic ST and CT surfaces provided a moderate overall enhancement of the heat transfer coefficient compared to an untreated surface due to increased nucleation site density and bubble frequency. The CT surface also decreased the bubble nucleation temperature due to effective vapor-entrapping and nucleation-promoting cavities. In a further step, both surfaces were hydrophobized through chemical vapor deposition of a fluorinated silane to tailor the wettability of the surface into a superhydrophobic state. This further reduced the average surface superheat by at least 40%, while the nucleation frequencies exceeded 200 Hz on the hydrophobized CT surface. In comparison with the untreated reference surface, the heat transfer coefficient on hydrophobized ST and CT surfaces was enhanced by 89% and 237% at 100 kW m−2, respectively. Moreover, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) value of the surface temperature distribution was reduced by 73% and 95% at the same heat flux, respectively. The study confirms that hydrophobic surface treatment can significantly enhance the nucleate boiling process when combined with an appropriate surface structure. Despite the affinity between the vapor and the hydrophobic layer, the cavity-type and spear-type TiO2 structures are able to maintain active nucleation sites well-separated, which prevents the undesirable vapor spreading that possibly leads to an early onset of critical heat flux.
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The rapid advancement of engineering systems has spurred the search for innovative thermal management solutions. Boiling, as a phase‐change heat transfer method, has shown promise in heat ...dissipation, but non‐functionalized surfaces struggle with increasing cooling demands. To improve heat dissipation efficiency across different heat loads, functionalized surfaces with tailored wettability have been proposed. Separately, superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic surfaces each offer benefits and drawbacks in boiling applications but combining them on a single “biphilic” surface simultaneously harnesses their advantages. In this study, laser‐functionalized copper surfaces with spatially tailored wettability are developed by combining two‐step laser texturing with a self‐assembled monolayer coating, while focus is placed on the impact of the size and pitch of superhydrophobic spots. The developed functionalized surfaces exhibit exceptional boiling performance with heat transfer coefficients up to 299 kW m−2 K−1, a 434% enhancement over untreated surfaces. Optimal ratios of superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic areas and optimal spot pitch are identified. Additionally, varying behavior at different heat flux levels is observed, emphasizing the importance of considering thermal loads when determining the optimal surface pattern. This advancement in performance, along with the rapid and cost‐effective functionalization process, represents a significant breakthrough for enhanced thermal management applications.
In this study, laser‐functionalized copper surfaces with spatially tailored wettability are developed by combining two‐step laser texturing with a self‐assembled monolayer coating as an innovative thermal management solution. These “biphilic” surfaces exhibit intentionally varied local superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity and exceptional pool boiling performance with heat transfer coefficients up to 299 kW m‐2 K‐1, a 434% enhancement over untreated surfaces.
•A novel approach with infrared thermography was used for fouling examination.•Spatiotemporal characterization was demonstrated at various operating conditions.•Crystallization occurs in high ...temperature and low flow velocity regions.•Fouling significantly affects flow distribution in the heat exchanger channels.
Heat exchanger performance is significantly reduced in the presence of impurities in one or both fluid streams, frequently by deposits of inversely soluble salts. Accordingly, immense efforts were and still are spent to combat, predict, and investigate such fouling problems to mitigate the reduction of heat transfer performance. In this study, calcium carbonate crystallization fouling in a corrugated plate heat exchanger was investigated. Fouling was monitored using temperature and flow measurements, and, for the first time, coupled with infrared thermography observations. We show a clear and measurable local difference between clean and fouled conditions, regardless of operating conditions. Infrared measurements of temperature permit conclusions about flow distribution and the spatial location of areas with severe fouling. Compared to the clean state, completely skewed isotherms after fouling point out channel blockage and flow obstructions, resulting in large scale flow re-distribution within the channel. The presented results exhibit a clear benefit of this approach for heat exchanger fouling studies and serve as a foundation for future research of dynamic operation, transient response, and computational models.
Nucleate pool boiling experiments were performed on plain and five laser-textured stainless-steel foils using saturated pure water, 100% ethanol, 0.4% and 4.2% mole fraction ethanol - water mixtures. ...All laser-textured samples contained untreated, smooth 0.5 mm wide regions and intermediate textured surfaces, that differ in the width of the laser patterned regions (from 0.5 mm to 2.5 mm). For smooth surfaces, we measured significant decreases in average heat transfer coefficients (HTC) and increases in bubble activation temperatures in comparison with the laser-textured surfaces for all the tested working fluids. Significant enhancement in HTC (280%) on a textured heating surface with 2.5-mm-wide laser pattern was recorded using pure water. For pure ethanol, the highest enhancement of 268% was achieved on a heating surface with 1.5-mm-wide laser pattern. The highest enhancement of HTC for the tested binary mixtures was obtained using 2.0-mm wide-laser-textured regions (HTC improved by 235% and 279% for the 0.4% and 4.2% mixtures, respectively). Our results indicate that laser texturing can significantly improve boiling performance when the intervals of the laser-textured patterns are close to the capillary lengths of the tested fluids.
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