Enhanced boiling heat transfer on three-dimensional hybrid micropillar array surfaces

Abstract

Boiling heat transfer is widely used in numerous industrial systems because of its excellent heat dissipation performance. The critical heat flux (CHF) represents the upper limit of efficient heat removal. The most widely applied CHF model is Zuber's hydrodynamic instability model, which posits that the interference between vapor and liquid counterflows results in the CHF. In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) hybrid micropillar array surface for hindering the liquid–vapor interface is proposed to enhance the CHF and heat transfer coefficient (HTC). The 3D hybrid surface comprises a tall hydrophobic (HB) pillar array surrounded by a short hydrophilic (HP) pillar array. The tall HB pillar array acts as a potential nucleation site for increasing the HTC, and the short HP pillar array acts as a wicking structure for facilitating liquid rewetting. In addition, the height difference between the HB and HP pillar arrays can potentially reduce the interference between liquid and vapor counterflows and increase the CHF. Relative to a plain silica surface, the 3D hybrid surface increases the CHF and HTC by 107% and 360%, respectively. Theoretical modeling suggests that the CHF on the 3D hybrid surface was still limited by pool hydrodynamics.