Design of a Smart Wettability-Regulating Surface for Enhancing Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Using the Lattice Boltzmann Method

The wettability of a heating surfacehas a significant effect on boiling heat transfer (BHT). However, the requirements of the boilingprocess for surface wettability under different superheat levels changedynamically, and static wettability cannot meet this dynamic demand.Hence, based on the Rohsenow correlation and Kandlikar correlation,the best corresponding relationship between temperature and wettabilitywas found, and a smart wettability-regulating surface with wettabilityvarying with superheat was designed. The smart surface can easilynucleate at low superheat and has a high BHT coefficient, similarto the hydrophobic surface. Moreover, it can gradually delay the arrivalof the critical heat flux as the wall superheat increases. The criticalheat flux of the smart surface was the same as that of a hydrophilicsurface and was 19.8% higher than that of a hydrophobic surface. Ithad the highest total BHT capacity, 13% better than that of a hydrophobicsurface.