Lifetime Test of Dropwise Condensation on Polymer-Coated Surfaces

In this paper, a special lifetime testing apparatus is installed for dropwise condensation heat transfer on polymer-coated surfaces. Film and dropwise condensations are simultaneously carried out in the same condensing chamber to get rid of any containments. The discontinuous experimental results demonstrate that one surface has sustained dropwise condensation for about 1000 hours. The condensation heat transfer characteristics tend toward stability. In addition, the experiments prove that a polymer film prepared by the dynamic ion-beam mixed implantation (DIMI) method has good adhesion with the metal substrate.