Effects of Micro/Nano-Scale Surface Characteristics on the Leidenfrost Point Temperature of Water

Abstract

In recent film boiling heat transfer studies with nanofluids, it was reported that deposition of nanoparticles on a surface significantly increases the nominal minimum heat flux (MHF) or Leidenfrost Point (LFP) temperature, considerably accelerating the transient cooling of overheated objects. It was suggested that the thin nanoparticle deposition layer and the resulting changes in the physico-chemical characteristics of the hot surface, such as surface roughness height, wettability and porosity, could greatly affect quenching phenomena. In this study, a set of water-droplet LFP tests are conducted using custom-fabricated surfaces which systemically separate the effects of surface roughness height (0-15 um), wettability (0-83°) and nanoporosity (∼23 nm). In addition, high-speed imaging of the evaporating droplets is used to explore the influence of these surface characteristics on the intermittent solid-liquid contacts in film boiling. The obtained results reveal that nanoporosity (not solely high surface wettability) is the crucial feature in efficiently increasing the LFP temperature by initiating heterogeneous nucleation of bubbles during short-lived solid-liquid contacts, which results in disruption of the vapor film, and that micro-posts on the surface intensify such effects by promoting intermittent liquid-surface contacts.