Experimental Study on the Condensation Heat Transfer on a Wettability-Interval Grooved Surface

Abstract

To provide further insight into humid air condensation on hybrid surfaces, an experiment was conducted to visually investigate the condensation process on wettability-interval grooved surfaces, which had hydrophobic ridges and hydrophilic grooves. The droplet dynamic behavior and heat transfer performance of condensation on a wettability-interval grooved surface were explored and compared with four other functional surfaces, including the plain hydrophilic surface, plain hydrophobic surface, hydrophilic grooved surface, and hydrophobic grooved surface. The presence of hydrophobic ridges perpendicular to the groove direction and hydrophilic grooves allowed for the exclusion and easy spreading of droplets, respectively. Compared with the other four functional surfaces, the coupling phenomena during condensation, i.e., the spontaneous suction and directional drainage via hydrophilic grooves, were only found on the wettability-interval grooved surface. These could not only remove condensate quickly but also suppress the formation of the flooded liquid film, which was beneficial to the enhancement of heat transfer performance. It was proven by the experimental results that at subcooling 12 K, the condensation heat flux on the wettability-interval grooved surface reached 1280 W/m2, which was 1.25 times that of the plain hydrophobic surface (1030 W/m2), and 15% higher than that of the hydrophobic grooved surface (1110 W/m2). This indicated that the wettability-interval microgrooves could effectively enhance humid air condensation heat transfer performance.