Experiments and modeling on cryogenic quenching enhancement by the structured capillary-porous coatings of surface

Abstract

In the present study, the influence of structured capillary-porous coatings of surface on cryogenic quenching by the falling liquid nitrogen film is investigated. The coating was produced by the directional plasma spraying technique. The cryogenic quenching experiments were performed on high-temperature vertical copper slab with bare surface and on the surfaces with different orientation of coating protrusions. Thermocouples and a high-speed digital video camera were employed to obtain a synchronized data on the temperature-time history of the transient process and the pattern of quench front propagation. The peculiarities of quench front dynamics and heat transfer in the transient process are studied. The created numerical model determines the quench front velocity and the temperature fields in the heater, varying in space and time. The dynamic pattern of quench front propagation obtained numerically satisfactorily correlates with the observed in the experiments one. The heat transfer curves during quenching were determined for different surfaces based on the experimental cooling thermograms and visualization data. The results show that the cooling rate is influenced by the thermal properties of the coating as well as the geometry of the protrusions on the solid surface. The presence of capillary-porous coating significantly affects the dynamics of quenching, which results in the decrease more then threefold of the total quench time. In this way, the structured capillary-porous coating is a method for reducing the time and the total mass of cryogenic fluid required for a quenching process. The effect is due to the fact that the initialization of a quench front on a specimen with the coating occurs at a temperature significantly higher than the thermodynamic limit of a liquid superheat, when a stable solid-liquid contact is thermodynamically impossible. This phenomenon appears as a result of local contacts of the crests of wavy liquid flow at the liquid-vapor interface with the protrusions on the modified surface. The results indicated also the minimum film boiling temperature increase on heat transfer surface coated with capillary-porous layer. This increased temperature caused earlier transition to nucleate boiling, which results in the decrease in the quenching time. The results reliability is confirmed by direct comparison with experimental data on the quench front dynamics, velocity and geometry.