Dropwise Condensate Comb for Enhanced Heat Transfer

Dropwise condensation on superhydrophobic surfaces could potentially enhance heat transfer by droplet spontaneous departure via coalescence-induced jumping. However, an uncontrolled droplet size could lead to a significant reduction of heat transfer by condensation, due to large droplets that resulted in a flooding phenomenon on the surface. Here, we introduced a dropwise condensate comb, which consisted of U-shaped protruding hydrophilic stripes and hierarchical micro-nanostructured superhydrophobic background, for a better control of condensation droplet size and departure processes. The dropwise condensate comb with a wettability-contrast surface structure induced droplet removal by flank contact rather than three-phase line contact. We showed that dropwise condensation in this structure could be controlled by designing the width of the superhydrophobic region and height of the protruding hydrophilic stripes. In comparison with a superhydrophobic surface, the average droplet radius was decreased to 12 mu m, and the maximum droplet departure radius was decreased to 189 mu m by a dropwise condensate comb with 500 mu m width of a superhydrophobic region and 258 mu m height of a protruding hydrophilic stripe. By controlling the droplet size and departure on hierarchical micro-nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces, it was experimentally demonstrated that both the heat transfer coefficient and heat flux could be enhanced significantly. Moreover, the dropwise condensate comb showed a maximum heat transfer coefficient of 379 kW m-2 K-1 at a low subcooling temperature, which was 85% higher than that of a superhydrophobic surface, and it showed 113% improvement of high heat flux or heat transfer coefficient when it was compared with that of the hierarchical micronanostructured superhydrophobic surface at a high subcooling temperature of similar to 10.6 K. This work could potentially transform the design and fabrication space for high-performance heat transfer devices by spatial control of condensation droplet size and departure processes.

Automated summary

A dropwise condensate comb with U-shaped protruding hydrophilic stripes and hierarchical micro-nanostructured superhydrophobic background was introduced to control the size and departure processes of condensation droplets. The experiment showed that the heat transfer coefficient and heat flux could be significantly enhanced by spatial control of condensation droplet size and departure processes. This work has the potential to transform the design and fabrication space for high-performance heat transfer devices.