Lattice Boltzmann method study of pool boiling on an electrowetting substrate

Abstract

Electrowetting has attracted significant attention in condensation, but its application in enhancing pool boiling heat transfer is very limited. In this paper, the lattice Boltzmann method is adopted to investigate the pool boiling heat transfer on electrowetting surfaces with different electrode configurations. The wettability of the baseline hydrophobic surface above the electrode will change to hydrophilicity once a voltage is applied. The differences in heat transfer and boiling phenomenon between the hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces without electrodes are illustrated firstly by the density contours and boiling curves. Then, the possibility of electrowetting in improving the heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and critical heat flux (CHF) is verified by comparing with baseline hydrophobic and patterned-coating surfaces, and different boiling heat transfer regimes are illustrated in detail. Furthermore, based on the heat transfer characteristics of the electrowetting surfaces with different electrode configurations, a surface with temperature-dependent electrodes is obtained to comprehensively enhance heat transfer from the onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) to CHF.