Dropwise Condensation Heat Transfer Research Articles

Limits of dropwise condensation heat transfer on dry nonwetting surfaces

Surface condensation is ubiquitous in applications such as power generation and desalination. Nonwetting surfaces have been studied extensively for their dropwise condensation potential with reports of dramatic improvements relative to the classical Nusselt equation for film-wise condensation that has long served as a reference theoretical lower bound on the condensation heat transfer coefficient. However, a theoretical upper bound on the maximum possible condensation heat transfer over a given surface is not available. Considering actual surface topographies as fractal surfaces, we present theoretical upper bounds for gravity-driven and jumping droplet condensation modes in a unified manner. Experimental data on steam condensation from this study as well as the literature on dry nonwetting surfaces are compared to the bounds to identify the opportunity gap to the theoretical maximum. Solid-infused surfaces, introduced recently by the authors, are shown to fall in this opportunity space, closer to the upper bound.

Ultrahigh Subcooling Dropwise Condensation Heat Transfer on Slippery Liquid-like Monolayer Grafted Surfaces.

Rapid and continuous droplet shedding is crucial for many applications, including thermal management, water harvesting, and microfluidics, among others. Superhydrophobic surfaces, though effective, suffer from droplet pinning at high subcooling temperature (Tsub). Conversely, slippery liquid-like surfaces covalently bonded with flexible hydrophobic molecules show high stability and low droplet adhesion attributed to their dense and ultrasmooth water repellent polymer chains, enhancing dropwise condensation and rapid shedding. In this work, linear poly(dimethylsiloxane) chains of various viscosities are covalently bonded onto silicon substrates to form thin and smooth monolayer coated surfaces. The formation of the monolayer is characterized by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy. On these surfaces a very low contact angle hysteresis is reported within wide surface temperature ranges as well as continuous dropwise condensation at ultrahigh Tsub of 60 K. In particular, one of the highest condensation heat fluxes of 1392.60 kW·m-2 and a heat transfer coefficient of 23.21 kW·m-2·K-1 at ultrahigh Tsub of 60 K is reported. The experimental heat transfer performance is further compared to the theoretical heat transfer via the individual droplets with the droplet distribution elucidated via both macroscopic observations as well as environmental scanning electron microscopy. Finally, only a mild decrease in the heat transfer coefficient of 20.3% after 100 h of condensation test at Tsub of 60 K is reported. Slippery liquid-like surfaces promote droplet shedding and sustain dropwise condensation at high Tsub without flooding empowered by the lower frictional forces, addressing challenges in heat transfer performance and durability.

Water Thermal Conductivity in Nanoscale and Its Effect on Dropwise Condensation Heat Transfer

The present study employs equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation based on the Green-Kubo approach to investigate the thermal conductivity of liquid water at the nanoscale. Specifically, the discussion centers around the influence of the size and surface wettability of two-dimensional nanochannels on the confined water thermal conductivity. The simulation results reveal a significant impact of nanochannel size on the thermal conductivity of confined water, with a decrease in channel spacing leading to a reduction in thermal conductivity below its bulk value. However, the thermal conductivity of water confined within a surface is not influenced by the water surface wettability. Additionally, the study investigates the influence of water thermal conductivity on droplet formation. The results indicate that incorporating changes in droplet thermal conductivity during the nucleation process can partially address the issue of overestimating the heat transfer coefficient for dropwise condensation.

Evaluation of dropwise condensation from a vertical condenser tube impregnated with semisolid lubricant

AbstractThe quest for augmenting dropwise condensation heat transfer performance has been the driving force behind the exploration of innovative techniques and approaches to fulfill the desired objective. Mostly, earlier research on dropwise condensation was devoted to study condensation from horizontal tubes and plates but, rarely, addressed dropwise condensation from vertical tubes. An interesting topic of current research in dropwise condensation is to explore the application of Slippery Liquid Infused Porous Surfaces (SLIPSs) to improve the condensation performance. The aforesaid facts are the motivation behind the topics of interest in the present study. In this study, we explore the applicability of semisolid lubricant‐impregnated porous surfaces in enhancing dropwise condensation performance of a vertical condenser tube. The experiments conducted over a wide range of subcooling (5°C ≤ ΔT ≤ 65°C) in saturated steam environment showed significant improvement in condensation heat transfer coefficient of a vertical condenser tube impregnated with semisolid lubricants when compared to bare vertical condenser tube. The highest enhancement is found to be 280% at a subcooling of 40°C. Furthermore, these surfaces proficiently sustain dropwise condensation over a period of 72 hours without compromising heat transfer performance. The devised fabrication method is simpler, more cost‐effective, and less time‐consuming than earlier techniques used for creating SLIPSs. Additionally, an approach based on numerical optimization by a stochastic global optimization technique, namely, Genetic Algorithm, is proposed to retrieve the coefficients and the exponent in the mathematical expression of overall resistance, that is being used to compute the tube‐side dropwise convection heat transfer coefficient.

Effect of Surface Renewal on the Drop Size Distribution in Dropwise Condensation within a Hybrid Surface

The description of liquid drop growth and drop distribution are two key models in evaluating the thermal performance of dropwise condensation (DWC) heat transfer. The drop size distribution describes the growth process of small drops by direct condensation and large drops by coalescence. The present work investigates the effect of surface renewal and coalescence intensities of DWC within a hybrid surface. Additionally, it examines the validity of the current empirical expression of the drop size distribution that is developed for DWC without considering surface renewal and coalescence intensities. The simulation work illustrates the drop growth process and surface renewal as drops depart and merge with neighboring film regions. The simulation results show that in hybrid DWC, the area fraction occupied by drops (f) lies between 0.28 to 0.296 for the ratio of maximum drop diameter to DWC region width (RD) from 0.125 to 1 and a total temperature drop (∆T) of 2, 4, and 8 ℃. Thus, the drop population is less sensitive to RD, and an average f of 0.288 is generalized. On the other hand, the surface renewal for DWC within the hybrid surface shows improvement for RD > 0.5 with the highest enhancement of 64 to 85% taking place at RD = 1, mainly due to the merging effect. In addition, results for drop size distribution profiles of DWC within the hybrid surface are characterized by a lower population of large drops and a higher population of small drops than full DWC. Additionally, the constant exponent (n) in the literature’s empirical expression is replaced by a polynomial series as a function of drop effective and maximum radii. The impact of surface renewal on coalescence intensity is presented in a relatively steeper slope on the logarithmic scale.

Modeling Dropwise Condensation on Hydrophobic Microgrooved Surface.

Dropwise condensation heat transfer on water-repellent surfaces is inherently linked to the mode of droplet departure from the surface. When a microgrooved hydrophobic surface is exposed to condensation, multiple spontaneous droplet removal pathways for surface renewal are manifested. We present numerical modeling of dropwise condensation on a microgrooved hydrophobic surface. Our model is an extension of the well-established one-dimensional modeling approach involving estimation of overall condensation heat transfer through the integration of individual droplet contributions. The model presented here accounts for all the surface renewal mechanisms observed on the microgrooved hydrophobic surface: growth and coalescence of condensate droplets within the microgroove and on the ridges, imbibition of the microgrooves with condensate, bulge formation, spontaneous dewetting of the microgrooves, and shedding of large drops through gravity. The modeling results show that the microgrooves trigger condensate shedding from the surface much earlier compared to a planar hydrophobic surface. As a result, the microgrooved hydrophobic surface maintains a much lower area coverage and attains a significantly higher condensation heat flux compared to a planar surface. The model also enables isolation of the relative contributions of the four mechanisms, wherein it is observed that the spontaneous dewetting transition of microgrooves dominates the other mechanisms in terms of the overall surface renewal rate. This is in contrast to the planar hydrophobic surface where droplet shedding under gravity is the main surface renewal mechanism. Finally, we also evaluate the effect of microgroove geometry on the condensation heat transfer performance. The model predicts that hydrophobic microgrooves with depth of ∼200 μm and narrow widths below ∼100 μm can yield enhanced thermal performance.

Ergodic simulation of droplet growth during dropwise condensation

Coalescence between droplets is responsible for the high heat transfer in dropwise condensation due to smaller droplets repeatedly growing at the exposed area left by merging droplets. In order to comprehend the dynamic process of droplet growth by monitoring each coalescence event during dropwise condensation, an effective local search method based on detection of droplet boundaries was proposed in this paper. This method complies with the dynamic criterion of droplet growth and exhibits ergodic advantage. The present simulation is completely independent of the number of droplets over the whole surface. Therefore, computational time can be significantly reduced. The proposed local search method is validated by a good agreement between the droplet size distribution from experiments and simulation. The present simulation provides an effective approach to more accurately predict the nucleation site density by comparing the measurable quantities (sliding frequency, droplet size distribution and heat transfer coefficient) from both experiments and simulations in future studies.

Dropwise condensation heat transfer on vertical superhydrophobic surfaces with fractal microgrooves in steam

Despite dropwise condensation witnesses the superior heat transfer performance with in-time removal of condensate, pinning and flooding phenomena significantly limit its application at high subcooling. In this study, we design and fabricate a self-similar fractal groove superhydrophobic surface inspired by the self-similar fractal spines of cactus thorns. A visualization and condensation heat transfer measurement experimental platform is established to investigate droplet dynamics and heat transfer performance on the vertical self-similar fractal groove superhydrophobic surface. Dropwise condensation is analyzed and compared with that on plane and groove superhydrophobic surfaces. The fractal grooves promote spontaneous coalescence-induced jumping of mismatched condensate droplets at low subcooling, resulting in a higher probability and frequency of droplet jumping. Furthermore, second-level grooves constrain the shape of large droplets more effectively and facilitate condensate removal after the failure of first-level grooves at high subcooling. In agreement with droplet dynamics, the heat transfer measurements demonstrate that the fractal groove superhydrophobic surface achieves the highest condensation heat flux and heat transfer coefficient among the three investigated superhydrophobic surfaces as subcooling increases.

Low-pressure steam dropwise condensation on durable PFA-coated horizontal tube: Droplet dynamics in active region

The performance of low-pressure steam condensers is vital to the thermal energy utilization efficiency of the power cycle, refrigeration, heat pump, and seawater desalination systems. Dropwise condensation demonstrates better heat transfer performance than traditional filmwise condensation, and its performance is determined by the condensate droplet dynamic behaviors on hydrophobic surfaces. However, the droplet dynamics behavior on the horizontal tube has not been adequately investigated. In this study, a durable PFA-coated copper tube is achieved to sustain stable dropwise condensation at the vapor pressure ranging from 5 to 100 kPa. By optical observation of condensation on the horizontally oriented tube, the droplet dynamic characteristics and the influence of vapor pressure on the droplet dynamics are examined. We show that an ‘active droplet region’ (ADR), which is characterized by frequent droplet shedding and surface renewal promoting more active nucleation, growth, and departure of droplets, exists along the tube circumference. As a result of the varying droplet dynamics, a skew-normal distribution of sliding droplet numbers presents along the tube circumference. The droplets departing within ADR account for 80% of the total departure droplets. Then, the effect of steam pressure on the droplet dynamics behavior in ADR is studied systematically. The average sweeping frequency of droplets under steam pressure of 100 kPa increases by -122% more than that under steam pressure of 5 kPa. The growth rate of droplets and migration speed improve with steam pressure. Thus, the evolution rate of the transient size distribution becomes rapid as the vapor pressure increases. Taking vapor pressure and circumferential angle into consideration, a semi-empirical model for the prediction of condensate droplet departure radius on a horizontal tube is proposed, of which the standard deviation can be reduced to less than 15%. These findings and insights into droplet dynamic behaviors on PFA-coated hydrophobic horizontal tube are of great significance for the novel surface design strategy for the enhancement of dropwise condensation heat transfer.

Enhancement of Dropwise Condensation Heat Transfer through a Sprayable Superhydrophobic Coating.

Improving the shedding rate of condensed droplets has many applications in industries and daily problems, including increasing heat transfer and self-cleaning properties. One way to achieve this goal is by enhancement of the wetting properties of surfaces. In this research, the hierarchical superhydrophobic coating over aluminum has been applied using a relatively cost-effective method, spraying, which is also applicable to any metal surface used as a condenser. According to the results obtained from the experimental tests, the fabricated surface is highly superhydrophobic, with a contact angle of 158° and contact angle hysteresis of less than 5°. The results show that the presented surface increases the heat transfer coefficient by 20.6% at the subcooling temperature of 25.5 °C when the surface temperature and relative humidity are 70 °C and 98%, respectively. In addition, this coated surface showed great potential at lower surface temperatures by increasing the water condensation rate as much as 50.5% at the subcooling temperature of 12 °C, when the surface temperature and relative humidity are 11.25 °C and 70%, respectively. Therefore, it is found that for the fabricated superhydrophobic paint in the present study, the effectiveness of the dropwise condensation mode profoundly depends on surface temperatures besides subcooling temperatures. In other words, a surface with lower temperatures shows better performance for the same subcooling temperatures. In addition, various types of durability tests are carried out. The results reveal that this coating has good durability against high surface temperatures, submerged conditions for 30 days, imposing hot steam for 150 h, corrosion, and organic solvents. Hence, it is suitable for industrial applications.

Computational fluid dynamics investigation of dropwise condensation heat transfer through a single droplet on Wenzel structures

Characterizing the behaviors of heat transfer rate of a droplet on rough surface to create hydrophobic surface is an important step toward efficient utilization of dropwise condensation (DWC). This work presents a numerical examination on the influence of surface roughness considering Wenzel structures on DWC heat transfer. The simulation of the liquid droplet has been done by utilizing the Surface Evolver (SE) software. The governing equations were discretized according to the finite volume method (FVM) utilizing the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software (ANSYS-FLUENT). For various roughness indexes, the impacts of different saturation temperatures and droplet volumes on the average heat flux were evaluated. Also, the outcomes extracted from the model were validated with attainable data in the literature and a good agreement was achieved. The outcomes imply that average heat flux would decrease for a Wenzel structure with maximum roughness index (ri=0.6) compared to a smooth surface at θ=160° about 32.3% considering water as a liquid droplet with (Tsat=313K, Pr=4.32). Moreover, it was found that the average heat flux augments with a rise in the droplet saturation temperature also a decrease in the droplet volume. Additionally, the increase of Ma and Re numbers, would result in the increase of average heat flux.

Measured dropwise condensation heat transfer coefficients from moist air under near-quiescent conditions

Condensation heat transfer from moist air is critical in dehumidification, fog collection, and cooling tower water reclamation; however, it is less studied than steam condensation. Although there are many visualization studies of dropwise condensation, few dropwise condensation heat transfer coefficients were reported in the literature for moist air. In this work, condensation occurred on a Teflon-coated, aluminum plate which was placed in an environmental chamber with controlled temperatures and relative humidities; air flowed from the plate’s bottom to top at velocities of 3–4 m/s. The plate was cooled on the backside by dry air flowing through five channels in an additively-manufactured, ABS plastic heat exchanger. The apparatus was validated using a heating case at temperatures above the dew point. Dropwise condensation was observed and heat transfer coefficients of approximately 40 W/m2K and 120 W/m2K were measured for the ambient conditions of 40 °C at 40% relative humidity (RH) and 40 °C at 60% RH, respectively. The thermal resistance from diffusion exceeds the thermal resistance of the droplets during condensation from moist air; enhancement mechanisms could focus on improving diffusion.

Dropwise condensation heat transfer on vertical superhydrophobic surfaces with gradient microgrooves in humid air

Self-propelled droplet removal contributes vitally to the enhancement of condensation heat transfer performance. Here, inspired by the prickle tip of the cactus, we design and fabricate a gradient groove superhydrophobic surface. A visualization system in humid air has been established to investigate the droplet dynamic behaviors and heat transfer performance on the vertical gradient groove superhydrophobic surface. The dropwise condensation is also analyzed and compared to that on the plane and square groove superhydrophobic surfaces. The results indicate that the gradient groove superhydrophobic surface has the highest condensation heat flux among the three mentioned superhydrophobic surfaces with the increasing subcooling. The gradient grooves facilitate the condensed droplets departure under the synergistic effect of the dual-Laplace induced jumping and gravity-driven sliding removal even at higher subcooling. The dual-Laplace induced jumping possesses greater driving force, conducting the smaller droplet departure diameter and smaller angle between initial velocity and surface wall, which effectively improves the surface refreshment and further strengthens the surface heat transfer.

Ultrathin Durable Organic Hydrophobic Coatings Enhancing Dropwise Condensation Heat Transfer.

Organic hydrophobic layers targeting sustained dropwise condensation are highly desirable but suffer from poor chemical and mechanical stability, combined with low thermal conductivity. The requirement of such layers to remain ultrathin to minimize their inherent thermal resistance competes against durability considerations. Here, we investigate the long-term durability and enhanced heat-transfer performance of perfluorodecanethiol (PFDT) coatings compared to alternative organic coatings, namely, perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane (PFDTS) and perfluorodecyl acrylate (PFDA), the latter fabricated with initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD), in condensation heat transfer and under the challenging operating conditions of intense flow (up to 9 m s–1) of superheated steam (111 °C) at high pressures (1.42 bar). We find that the thiol coating clearly outperforms the silane coating in terms of both heat transfer and durability. In addition, despite being only a monolayer, it clearly also outperforms the iCVD-fabricated PFDA coating in terms of durability. Remarkably, the thiol layer exhibited dropwise condensation for at least 63 h (>2× times more than the PFDA coating, which survived for 30 h), without any visible deterioration, showcasing its hydrolytic stability. The cost of thiol functionalization per area was also the lowest as compared to all of the other surface hydrophobic treatments used in this study, thus making it the most efficient option for practical applications on copper substrates.

The role of shadowed droplets in condensation heat transfer

Dropwise condensation (DWC) is a phenomenon of common occurrence and significant utility in nature and technology. In energy applications, sustenance of DWC and avoidance of transition to film formation is directly related to efficient heat removal, ensuring high performance of related devices and processes. The efficiency of heat transfer in DWC depends on the heat transfer rates of individual droplets and the droplet size distribution. While the former can be summarily captured in engineering analysis through thermal resistance modeling, the theoretical analysis of the droplet size distribution involves assumptions often oversimplifying the complexity of droplet interactions, especially in the important sub–10 μm regime. Here, a modeling framework based on the thermal resistance approach is coupled with a dynamic model of droplet interactions: Droplet growth, coalescence, jumping, and removal of condensate due to gravity are all present during the unfolding of the phenomenon to accurately predict the droplet size distribution. The motivation is condensation experiments on superhydrophobic surfaces, namely rough aluminum substrates with a hydrophobic coating. Through the “interaction” of computations with measurements, the experimental findings are explained and critical parameters for condensation heat transfer on superhydrophobic surfaces are illuminated. Although larger droplets can be easily observed in experiments, it is shown that large droplets do not significantly affect heat transfer after reaching such state of growth. Instead, it is the small (with radius < 10 μm) and what we term “shadowed” droplets, i.e., the droplets grown in the shadow of the vertical projection area of the larger droplets, that play an important role in the heat transfer process. Due to the growth of these droplets and their concomitant shadowed coalescence and ensuing re-nucleation, the shift in the droplet size distribution towards smaller sizes is significant-enough to render the heat transfer rate rather insensitive to the presence of large droplets. In this regime, the effect of contact angle hysteresis on heat transfer is not crucial. Through the comparison with measurements, the dominant role of the density of nucleation sites on heat transfer is revealed and an estimation of the density of sites (∼105 mm−2) as a function of subcooling is extracted. Finally, the distribution of sites is found critical for heat transfer; an ordered distribution of sites outperforms random and clustered distributions.

Dropwise condensation mechanisms when varying vapor velocity

The promotion of dropwise condensation (DWC) has been identified as an effective strategy to significantly improve the heat transfer coefficient (HTC) as compared to filmwise condensation (FWC). Understanding the mechanisms governing dropwise condensation on modified wettability surfaces is crucial for a wide range of energy applications. In the literature, most of the experimental data are collected during DWC with quiescent vapor. On the other hand, in industrial applications, the vapor to be condensed can have a non-negligible velocity which is expected to affect the droplet population on the condensing surface and the heat transfer. However, measurements of heat transfer coefficient and droplet population with flowing steam are rare and the effect of vapor velocity on the drop-size distribution, which is a key parameter in DWC modeling, needs to be investigated.In the present work, the effect of steam velocity during DWC is experimentally studied on two different specimens: a sol–gel coated aluminum sample and a reduced graphene oxide coated copper sample. HTC, droplet departing radius and drop-size distribution measurements are performed at constant saturation temperature and heat flux, while varying the inlet vapor velocity in the range between 3 and 15.5 m s−1. Due to the increase of the vapor drag force on the droplets, a reduction of the droplet departing radius is observed along with an increase of the condensation HTC. The vapor flow is found to affect the droplet population and, in particular for the largest droplets radii, the drop-size distribution function is lowered when increasing vapor velocity. The experimental data are used to assess a model for the estimation of the droplet departing radius in presence of vapor velocity previously proposed by the present authors. As a second step, the equation for the calculation of the droplet departing radius is coupled with available models for droplet population and heat transfer through a single droplet to model the whole DWC process. The proposed calculation method is able to predict the effect of vapor velocity on the DWC heat transfer coefficient.

Dropwise condensation heat transfer of the surface with micro columns

Condensation is the process of changing a substance from a gaseous state into a liquid state, which is a phase-change process and has been widely applied in many fields. Dropwise condensation occurs on hydrophobic and superhydrophobic surfaces, and thus, has a much higher heat-transfer coefficient than film condensation. In this study, four types of micro-structured surfaces including cylinder, cube, cone and pyramid with the same height of 6μm were made on silicon surfaces. Due to the different surface morphology, the micro-structured surfaces with cylinders and cubes had superhydrophobic properties with the contact angle of 158.4° and 155.5°, respectively; while the micro-structured surfaces with cones and pyramids had hydrophilic properties with the contact angle of 86.4° and 44.4°, respectively. Through the experimentally study of the heat transfer and dynamic characteristics of droplets on the micro-structured surfaces, the results showed that under the same conditions (steam pressure is 0.1MPa, saturated steam temperature is 100 °C and steam flow rate is 0.298 ± 0.02 m3/h), the heat flux increased linearly with the increase of the cooling water temperature difference and the subcooling, respectively. Moreover, condensation heat transfer coefficient decreased as the increase of the subcooling. Because of less sharp edges and bigger contact angles, the cylindrical micro-structured surface had more excellent droplet mobility leading to faster condensation process and heat transfer. Through the comparison of the droplet growth in the horizontal and vertical directions, it was found that the micro-structured surface with more sharp edges had a larger droplets density. However, the sharp edges prevent the coalescence and shedding which slowed down the heat transfer. Therefore, the cylindrical micro-structured surface spent the shortest time in the whole growth process and thus had the best heat transfer performance.

Machine learning enabled condensation heat transfer measurement

Measuring condensation heat transfer and its associated heat transfer coefficient is not trivial. Rigorous measurements require careful experimental design and tradeoff studies to properly select sensor type, sample geometry and size, coolant fluid and flow rate, operating conditions, working fluid purity, purge methodology, and measurement protocol. Conventional tube-based condensation heat transfer measurements quantify the change in the enthalpy of a single-phase coolant flow via measurement of the inlet and outlet bulk coolant temperatures. The uncertainties associated with this classical and well-established experimental method are high. The high uncertainty stems from the high characteristic heat transfer coefficient or heat flux associated with the condensation process, making the thermal resistance on the external tube side typically on the same order of magnitude as the internal single-phase coolant convective heat transfer thermal resistance. Even when taking the utmost care and using extremely accurate sensors having low uncertainty, the relative uncertainties of heat flux and heat transfer coefficient can be in the range of 20% to 100%. Here, we take advantage of machine learning (ML) to develop an optical visualization method for dropwise condensation heat transfer characterization. Using state-of-the-art intelligent vision, we demonstrate a previously-unexplored method for characterizing the condensate droplet shedding frequency, droplet shedding size, and heat flux without the need for high-speed imaging. We verify our technique by conducting rigorous steam condensation measurements on Parylene C coated smooth copper tube samples having 500 nm, 1 μm, and 5 μm Parylene C thicknesses. We validate our ML predictions with data obtained simultaneously using the enthalpy-change method on a custom and well-established condensation chamber. In contrast to conventional heat transfer measurement methods, the uncertainty of our ML method is constant (∼10%) and does not vary with heat flux. We finally demonstrate the key advantage of our ML measurement technique on a custom-made tube having axially varying surface properties resulting in differing local heat transfer coefficient. Our ML heat transfer measurement method enables the high fidelity characterization of phase change heat flux, reduction in relative measurement uncertainty, resolution of local effects, and elimination of the need for temperature measurement across samples.

Mechanisms of dropwise condensation on aluminum coated surfaces

Dropwise condensation (DWC) is a complex phase-change phenomenon involving the formation of randomly distributed droplets on the condensing surface. The promotion of DWC instead of the traditional filmwise condensation (FWC) is a promising solution to enhance the efficiency of heat exchangers by increasing the condensation heat transfer coefficient. The interaction between the condensing fluid and the surface (wettability) is important in defining the condensation mode. On metallic surfaces widely employed in heat transfer applications, the condensing process occurs in filmwise mode. Ideally, an engineered surface designed to achieve high DWC heat transfer coefficients should present low contact angle hysteresis and low thermal resistance. Among the different available techniques to modify the surface wettability, hybrid organic-inorganic sol-gel silica coatings functionalized with hydrophobic moieties (phenyl or methyl groups) have been identified as a feasible solution to promote DWC on metallic surfaces. In the present paper, different aluminum sol-gel coated surfaces have been tested during DWC of steam in saturated conditions. The realized coatings have been characterized by means of dynamic contact angles and coating thickness measurements. Condensation tests have been performed using a two-phase thermosyphon loop operating in steady-state conditions that allows visualization of the condensation process and simultaneous heat transfer measurements. Heat transfer coefficients have been measured by varying the heat flux, at 106 °C saturation temperature and with vapor velocity equal to 2.7 m s−1. A high-speed camera is used for the visualization of the DWC process.

Numerical scrutinization of dropwise condensation heat transfer on an inclined surface

AbstractRecently, achieving an ameliorated heat transfer rate in dropwise condensation (DWC) has attracted the attention of many researchers. Several parameters, including chemical and physical properties of the substrate, inclination, and interfacial characteristics influence DWC heat transfer rate. The variation of inclination angle is followed by the change in droplet shape and consequently, the heat transfer rate are changed. In this study, the effect of droplet shape variation on diverse inclined substrates is simulated. Moreover, three‐dimensional mass, momentum, and energy equations considering the desired boundary conditions on the unstructured grid are utilized for the scrutinization of flow behavior and heat transfer for static and sliding droplets. For the sake of validation, the outcomes obtained from the simulation were compared with existent data in the literature and a proper agreement was attained. Regarding the outcomes, it was of concern that the influence of inclination angle on the droplet shape is more distinct at higher droplet volume; while no considerable change was seen on heat flux of small droplets by increasing the inclination angle. Furthermore, a higher heat transfer rate was noted by exceeding the inclination angle beyond a definite angle. Additionally, the increased heat transfer rate was affirmed by increasing the Marangoni number .