An Experimental Investigation on the Pool Boiling Heat Transfer of R-134a on Microporous Cu-MWCNT Composite Surfaces

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) exhibit outstanding physical properties, including high thermal conductivity, excellent mechanical strength, and low electrical resistivity, which make them suitable candidates for a variety of applications. The work presented in this paper focuses on the pool boiling performance of refrigerant R-134a on microporous Cu-MWCNT composite surface layers. A two-stage electrodeposition technique was used to fabricate Cu-MWCNT composite coatings. In order to achieve variation in the surface properties of the Cu-MWCNT composite surface layer, electrodeposition was carried out at various bath temperatures (25 degrees C, 30 degrees C, 35 degrees C, and 40 degrees C). All surfaces coated with the Cu-MWCNT composite demonstrated superior boiling performance compared to the uncoated surface. Heat transfer coefficient (HTC) values for Cu-MWCNT composite surface layers, prepared at bath temperatures of 25 degrees C, 30 degrees C, 35 degrees C, and 40 degrees C, exhibited improvements of up to 1.75, 1.88, 2.06, and 2.22, respectively, in comparison to the plain Cu surface.