Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of Nucleation Site Density and Heat Transfer During Dropwise Condensation on Thin Hydrophobic Coatings
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Contributors
Abstract
Dropwise condensation (DWC) has the potential to enhance heat transfer compared to filmwise condensation (FWC). The heat transfer rates achieved by DWC depend on the drop size distribution, which is influenced by nucleation processes of newly formed drops. In DWC modeling, the nucleation site density Ns is used as an input parameter to obtain the drop size distribution of small drops. However, due to the small scale of the condensate nuclei, direct observation is difficult, and experimental data on the nucleation site density are scarce. In the literature, values in the range of 109 m-2 to 1015 m-2 can be found for Ns. In this paper, we report DWC experiments on SiO2 and 1H,1H,2H,2H-per-fluorodecyltriethoxysilane (PFDTES) thin hydrophobic coatings that show significantly different nucleation site densities. Nucleation site densities are estimated from high-speed imaging of small drops during initial condensation and from model calibration using established DWC theory. We have found the values for Ns to be in the range from 1:1 × 1010 m-2 to 5:1 × 1011 m-2 for the SiO2 coating and 1011 m-2 to 1013 m-2 for the PFDTES coating. Our results show that there can be large differences in the nucleation site density under similar conditions depending on the surface properties. This underlines the importance of investigating nucleation site density specifically for each surface and under consideration of the specific process conditions used for DWC.
Details
Original language | English |
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Article number | 061601 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Heat and Mass Transfer |
Volume | 144 |
Issue number | 6 |
Early online date | 5 Apr 2022 |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2022 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
Scopus | 85144634962 |
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Keywords
Subject groups, research areas, subject areas according to Destatis
Keywords
- dropwise condensation, heat transfer enhancement, nucleation site density