Nucleate boiling on the superhydrophilic surface with a small water impingement jet

Abstract

In this study, the coating process on the copper surface with titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been introduced. The coated surface exhibits extremely high affinity for water and the solid–liquid contact angle decreases nearly to zero by exposing the surface to ultra-violet light. This superhydrophilic characteristic was applied to nucleate boiling heat transfer of water jet impingement on a flat heated plate. By making use of this special heat transfer surface, the nucleate boiling heat transfer and the critical heat flux (CHF) of a bar water jet impingement on a large flat superhydrophilic surface was experimentally investigated. The experimental data were measured in a steady state. The purified water was employed as the working liquid. Three main influencing factors, i.e., subcooling, impact velocity and the surface coating condition, were changed and their effects on the nucleate boiling heat transfer and the CHF were investigated. The empirical correlations were obtained for predicting the CHF of steady boiling for a small round water jet impingement on a large flat superhydrophilic surface. The experimental results show that the CHF on the superhydrophilic surface is about 30% higher than that on conventional copper surface by decreasing the solid–liquid contact angle.