Nanoscale Surface Modification Techniques for Pool Boiling Enhancement—A Critical Review and Future Directions

Abstract

New discoveries presented in the last decade for enhancing boiling performance utilizing nanoscale structures on surfaces are critically examined in this paper. Since the mechanism for such a phenomenon is not fully understood, this review mainly focuses on the experimental studies reported in the literature on the boiling phenomena on nanostructures, and implementation of nanostructures on various substrates. The paper also focuses on the interpretation of underlying phenomena for enhancing the boiling performance. The main influencing parameter in controlling is seen as the change in the surface energy of the boiling surface, which is characterized by the contact angle of the liquid and vapor phase interface at the heating surface. The nanostructures are seen to alter the contact angle. Design consideration and theoretical developments are also discussed, followed by practical aspects of nanostructure manufacturing. The issues related to performance, ease of fabrication, and durability (whenever available) are reviewed and recommendations are made for future research in this emerging area.

Acknowledgments

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant 0802100. Part of the work was conducted at the Thermal Analysis, Microfluidics, and Fuel Cell Laboratory at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Yen-Wen Lu received his Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2004. He received an M.S. from the University of Michigan and a B.S. from the National Taiwan University. He was a faculty member in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at Rutgers University and later in the Microsystems Engineering Doctoral Program at Rochester Institute of Technology. He received several awards, including an FEAD Faculty Award and a Texas Instruments/Harvey Award. His research projects have been supported by federal agencies and industrial companies in the United States and Taiwan. His main research interests focus on design, fabrication, and applications of nanostructured surfaces and MEMS-based microsurgical tools. He is currently with Bio-Industrial Mechatronics Engineering at National Taiwan University.

Satish G. Kandlikar is the Gleason Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).  He received his Ph.D. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay in 1975 and was a faculty member there before coming to RIT in 1980.  He has worked extensively in the area of flow boiling heat transfer and CHF phenomena at microscale, single-phase flow in microchannels, high heat flux chip cooling, and water management in PEM fuel cells. He has published more than 200 journal and conference papers. He is a fellow of the ASME and associate editor of a number of journals. He is the executive editor of Heat Exchanger Design Handbook published by Bedell House and is the Heat in History Editor for Heat Transfer Engineering. He has received RIT's Eisenhart Outstanding Teaching Award in 1997 and its Trustees Outstanding Scholarship Award in 2006. He has received the 2008 Rochester Engineer of the Year award from Rochester Engineering Society. Currently he is working on DOE- and GM-sponsored projects on fuel cell water management under freezing conditions, and an NSF-sponsored project on roughness effect on fluid flow and heat transfer at microscale.

Notes

¹The dimension of the nanostructures varies from processes types and many process parameters. The values provided here are intended to give readers the numerical ranges that each fabrication technique can achieve.