An experimental study has been conducted to examine the effects of macroscale, microscale, and nanoscale surface modifications in water pool boiling heat transfer and to determine the different heat transfer enhancing mechanisms at different scales. Nanostructured surfaces are created by acid etching, while microscale and macroscale structured surfaces are synthesized through a sintering process. Six structures are studied as individual and collectively integrated surfaces from nanoscale through microscale to macroscale: polished plain, flat nanostructured, flat porous, modulated porous, nanostructured flat porous, and nanostructured modulated porous. Boiling performance is measured in terms of critical heat flux (CHF) and heat transfer coefficient (HTC). Both HTC and CHF have been greatly improved on all modified surfaces compared to the polished baseline. Hierarchical multiscale surfaces of integrated nanoscale, microscale, and macroscale structures have been proven to have the most significant improvements on HTC and CHF. The CHF and HTC of the hierarchical multiscale modulated porous surface have achieved the most significant improvements of 350% and 200% over the polished plain surface, respectively. Experimental results are compared to the predictions of a variety of theoretical models with an attempt to reveal the different heat transfer enhancing mechanisms at different scales. It is concluded that models for the structured surfaces at all scales need to be further developed to be able to have good quantitative predictions of CHFs on structured surfaces.

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Spherical Cu nanocavity surfaces are synthesized to examine the individual role of contact angles in connecting lateral Rayleigh-Taylor wavelength to vertical Kevin-Helmholtz wavelength on hydrodynamic instability for the onset of pool boiling Critical Heat Flux (CHF). Solid and porous Cu pillar surfaces are sintered to investigate the individual role of pillar structure pitch at millimeter scale, named as module wavelength, on hydrodynamic instability at CHF. Last, spherical Cu nanocavities are coated on the porous Cu pillars to create a multiscale Cu structure, which is studied to examine the collective role and relative significance of contact angles and module wavelength on hydrodynamic instability at CHF, and the results indicate that module wavelength plays the dominant role on hydrodynamic instability at CHF when the height of surface structures is equal or above ¼ Kelvin-Helmholtz wavelength. Pool boiling Heat Transfer Coefficient (HTC) enhancements on spherical Cu nanocavity surfaces, solid and porous Cu pillar surfaces, and the integrated multiscale structure have been investigated, too. The experimental results reveal that the nanostructures and porous pillar structures can be combined together to achieve even higher enhancement of HTC than that of individual structures.

An experimental study of nanostructure modified nucleation site density and contact angle that significantly enhances the Heat Transfer Coefficient (HTC) and the Critical Heat Flux (CHF) in pool boiling heat transfer of water on copper surfaces has been conducted. The nanostructures on copper surfaces have been created by an electrodeposition technique. It has been found that the nanostructured copper surfaces show an increase in CHF of up to 142% and an increase in HTC of 33% over that of a mirror-finished plain copper surface. Calculations for nucleation site density and active nucleation site diameter reveal a direct correlation between these factors and the HTC, as well as the CHF. More interestingly, a contact angle study on the tested surfaces shows that there is a connection between the contact angle reduction and CHF enhancement, which confirms the contact angle mechanism of CHF with experimental evidence.

A study has been conducted to examine the effects of macroscale, microscale, and nanoscale surface modifications in water pool boiling heat transfer and to determine the effects of combining the multiple scales. Nanostructured surfaces were created by acid etching, while microscale and macroscale surfaces were manufactured through a sintering process. Six structures were studied as individual and/or collectively integrated surfaces: polished plain, flat nanostructured, flat porous, modulated porous, nanostructured flat porous, and nanostructured modulated porous. Boiling performance was measured in terms of critical heat flux (CHF) and heat transfer coefficient (HTC). Both HTC and CHF have been greatly improved on all modified surfaces compared to the polished baseline. The CHF and HTC of the hybrid multiscale modulated porous surface have achieved the most significant improvements of 350% and 200% over the polished plain surface, respectively. Nanoscale, microscale, and macroscale integrated surfaces have been proven to have the most significant improvements on HTC and CHF. Experimental results were compared to the predictions of a variety of theoretical models with an attempt to evaluate both microscale and nanoscale models. It was concluded that models for both microscale and nanoscale structured surfaces needed to be further developed to be able to have good quantitative predictions of CHFs on structured surfaces.