A molecular dynamics study of phobic/philic nano-patterning on pool boiling heat transfer

R Diaz and ZX Guo, HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER, 53, 1061-1071 (2017).

DOI: 10.1007/s00231-016-1878-2

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were employed to investigate the pool boiling heat transfer of a liquid argon thin film on a flat, horizontal copper wall structured with vertical nanoscale pillars. The efficacy of phobic/philic nano-patterning for enhancing boiling heat transfer was scrutinized. Both nucleate and explosive boiling modes were considered. An error analysis demonstrated that the typical 2.5 sigma cutoff in MD simulations could under-predict heat flux by about 8.7 %, and 6 sigma cutoff was chosen here in order to maintain high accuracy. A new coordination number criterion was also introduced to better quantify evaporation characteristics. Results indicate that the argon- phobic/philic patterning tends to either have no effect, or decrease overall boiling heat flux, while the argon-philic nano-pillar/argon- philic wall shows the best heat transfer performance.

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