Parametric Study of Pool Boiling on Horizontal Highly Conductive Microporous Coated Surfaces

Abstract

To better understand the mechanisms that govern the behavior of pool boiling on horizontal highly conductive microporous coated surfaces, a series of experimental investigations were designed to systematically examine the effects of the geometric dimensions (i.e., coating thickness, volumetric porosity, and pore size, as well as the surface conditions of the porous coatings) on the pool-boiling performance and characteristics. The study was conducted using saturated distilled water at atmospheric pressure (101kPa) and porous surfaces fabricated from sintered isotropic copper wire screens. For nucleate boiling on the microporous coated surfaces, two vapor ventilation modes were observed to exist: (i) upward and (ii) mainly from sideways leakage to the unsealed sides and partially from the center of porous surfaces. The ratio of the heater size to the coating thickness, the friction factor of the two-phase flow to single-phase flow inside the porous coatings, as well as the input heat flux all govern the vapor ventilation mode that occurs. In this investigation, the ratio of heater size to coating thickness varies from 3.5 to 38 in order to identify the effect of heater size on the boiling characteristics. The experimental results indicate that the boiling performance and characteristics are also strongly dependent on the volumetric porosity and mesh size, as well as the surface conditions when the heater size is given. Descriptions and discussion of the typical boiling characteristics; the progressive boiling process, from pool nucleate boiling to film boiling; and the boiling performance curves on conductive microporous coated surfaces are all systematically presented.