Performance of different structured surfaces in nucleate pool boiling

Several structured surfaces have been developed in-house for the augmentation of boiling heat transfer using distilled water as test fluid under atmospheric pressure. These surfaces have either a number of parallel tunnels or orthogonally intersecting tunnels. Effect of design parameters like tunnel inclination and different cavity structure at the tunnel base on the boiling heat transfer has been investigated. Three different structures namely circular groove, rectangular groove and rounded base have been used at the end of the tunnels. Heat flux is varied in the range of 0–250 kW/m2. Experimental results showed tunnels inclined at an angle 60° with the horizontal provide better augmentation compared to straight vertical tunnels. Amongst different base geometry the circular pocket produced most conducive condition for the boiling heat transfer. The use of tunnels also increases the degree of augmentation. The highest augmentation was obtained from the surface having intersecting inclined tunnels with a circular base.