Enhanced nucleate boiling on copper micro-porous surfaces

Saturation boiling of PF-5060 dielectric liquid on Cu micro-porous surface layers (95, 139, 171, 197 and 220-μm thick) is investigated. These layers are deposited on 10 × 10 mm Cu substrates using two-stage electrochemical process. The basic micro-structure, obtained in the first stage using current density of 3 A/cm2 for 15–44 s, depending on thickness, is strengthened by continuing electrochemical deposition using much lower current density for 10’s of minutes. For conditioned surface layers, after a few successive boiling tests, the pool boiling curves are reproducible and the temperature excursion prior to boiling incipience is either eliminated or reduced <7 K. Present nucleate boiling results are markedly better than those reported for dielectric liquids on micro- and macro-structured surfaces. Present values of CHF (22.7–27.8 W/cm2) and hMNB (2.05–13.5 W/cm2 K) are ∼40–70% higher than and >17 times those reported on plane surfaces (<16 W/cm2 and ∼0.8 W/cm2 K). Best results are those of the 171-μm thick layer: CHF of 27.8 W/cm2 occurs at ΔTsat of only 2.1 K and hMNB of 13.5 W/cm2 K occurs at ΔTsat = 2.0 K.