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Condensation frosting causes serious economic and safety problems in many industrial applications. Recently, lubricant-impregnated surfaces (LIS) have been attracting much interest with their excellent anti-frosting ability. The facilitated removal of drops due to the low contact angle hysteresis of LIS has been suggested as the frosting suppression mechanism. Here, we demonstrate a hitherto-unexplored microscale frosting suppression mechanism on LIS by investigating microscopic condensation and freezing dynamics on LIS by varying the viscosities of the lubricants. Based on the ice propagation model, we show that the frosting propagation is suppressed on LIS with a low viscosity oil where the coalescence of droplets is promoted by the presence of oil. On the contrary, the coalescence between droplets is interrupted on LIS with a high viscosity oil, which facilitates the frost propagation. The criteria for the delay of condensation frosting were explained based on the competition between the lubricant drainage time and the drop growth time scale. Finally, we verify that microscopic frosting suppression mechanism of LIS persists up to macroscopic level by demonstrating that LIS is effective in suppressing condensation frosting on heat exchangers.

A gravity-assisted heat pipe called a two-phase closed thermosyphon (TPCT) is an efficient thermal device that transfers a large amount of heat at a relatively small temperature difference using the phase-change process. Promoting dropwise condensation on a condenser wall of a TPCT promises an increase in the effective thermal conductance of that device. Acetone and ethanol have been widely used for heat pipe applications as working fluids. Still, they pose a limitation in promoting dropwise condensation using typical hydrophobic coatings due to their lower surface energies. Recent works have shown that lubricant-impregnated surfaces (LIS) can promote dropwise condensation of low-surface-tension fluids, but no studies proved the effectiveness of the surfaces in TPCT applications. This study experimentally achieves dropwise condensation of acetone and ethanol within a TPCT using the LIS surface. We demonstrate heat transfer enhancement of a TPCT by examining temperature uniformity, condenser and evaporator heat transfer coefficients (HTCs), and overall and partial thermal resistances. We demonstrated that the LIS condenser increased the condenser HTC by 220% and decreased the overall thermal resistance of the TPCT by 44% compared to filmwise condensation. Our work also revealed a strong dependence of working fluid viscosity on dropwise condensation stability and heat transfer enhancement by comparing the two working fluids, acetone, and ethanol. This work presents the opportunity for improving thermal performance in heat pipes and applications that rely on the condensation of low-surface-tension fluids, such as HVAC, refrigeration, and organic Rankine cycle.

A two-phase closed thermosyphon (TPCT), also called a gravity-assisted heat pipe, is an efficient heat transfer device that exploits boiling and condensation phase-change phenomena to transport large amounts of heat. Recently, jumping droplet condensation on a well-designed superhydrophobic (SHPo) surface has shown superior condensation heat transfer coefficient (HTC), exceeding ~380% and ~30% over conventional filmwise and dropwise condensation, respectively. However, SHPo surfaces within TPCTs have shown much lower HTCs than expected, and the exact cause of this has not been investigated yet. Here, we experimentally explored the effects and limitations of a SHPo surface in a TPCT by visualizing the internal flow patterns and condensation behavior according to heat flux. We constructed a TPCT device capable of visualizing the inside and fabricated a SHPo surface on a condenser wall of the TPCT. We revealed two important condensation characteristics that limit the condenser HTC of the SHPo surface and the TPCT's heat transfer performance. At high heat fluxes (≥ 90 kW/m2), the repetitive liquid collision led to an early flooding transition of the surface and a stepwise decrease in the condenser HTC. At low heat fluxes (

We present the dynamic heat transfer analysis of condensed droplets growing and coalescing on hydrophobic (HPo) and superhydrophobic (SHPo) surfaces using a full 3D numerical simulation. In the model, two water droplets surrounded by fully-saturated water vapor grow on a horizontal surface through condensation until they coalesce together. The dynamic changes in the interfacial areas, temperature distributions and heat flux through each interface were analyzed. The effects of vapor phase temperature distribution, parasitic thermal resistance and surface flooding on the heat transfer rate are also quantified. The results show that a relatively high heat transfer rate through solid–vapor interface on SHPo partially compensates the low heat transfer rate through solid–liquid interface. The parasitic thermal resistance of the suggested SHPo may reduce the heat transfer performance over 30%. When the flooding occurs on HPo, the heat transfer rate rapidly decreases below a half of the value obtained at the beginning of coalescence. This work shows the importance of the heat transfer analysis considering dynamic changes in the interfacial area and resulting 3D temperature distributions, and will help develop the optimal condensation heat transfer surfaces.

Thermal interface materials (TIMs) with high thermal conductivity, fluidic characteristics, and surface wettability are crucial for the effective thermal management of high-power electronics. Gallium-based liquid metal (LM) can be a candidate for obtaining the purposes due to their thermo-physical properties. Several studies attempted to further increase the thermal conductivity of composites by adding conductive fillers. However, these efforts have been limited due to the oxidation and solidification issues at high vol% of fillers. In this work, we apply three strategies to obtain the enhanced thermal conductivity while maintaining the fluidity: 1) suppressing Ga-induced oxidation, 2) reducing the matrix-fillers interfacial resistance, and 3) forming additional heat-pathways within the LM matrix. An oxide-free ultrasonication-assisted particle internalization method has been developed, in which the copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) are incorporated into the gallium-indium-tin (GaInSn) LM matrix. The fabricated composite shows ~180% enhancement of thermal conductivity (~64.8 Wm−1K−1) with only 4 vol% of nano-fillers compared to the untreated GaInSn. In the droplet impacting test, the synthesized GaInSn/Cu NPs composite presents almost identical spreading diameters with the untreated one, which confirms the maintained fluidity. The predicted thermal conductivity using the theoretical model, calculating the measured cluster fraction, is well-matched to the experimental data, which clarifies that the nanoparticle clusters created effective heat-pathways. A high-quality interface with a silicon substrate is confirmed by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, demonstrating the presence of a thin-film Ga2O3 adhesion layer. In the cooling performance test, the developed TIM provides over 20% lower hot-spot temperature than that of the grease-type TIM at high heat flux regime (>150 W/cm2), showing excellent thermal stability over 230 cycles of acceleration test. This work will help develop high-performance TIMs, especially for high power density semiconductor applications.

Promoting dropwise condensation on condensers has the potential to significantly improve cooling and heat recovery performance of two-phase closed thermosyphons (TPCTs). If it is well designed, the dropwise condensation can provide an order of magnitude higher heat transfer coefficient than filmwise condensation of conventional metal condensers. The thermal design of an ideal dropwise condensing surface is so important in the rationale for the advantage of dropwise condensation in the TPCTs. However, the effect of the hydrophobic promoter thickness on the thermal characteristics of the TPCT and its optimal value are still unclear. Here, we develop a unified model framework for the TPCT with the dropwise condenser and investigate how much the dropwise condensation can improve the thermal performance of the TPCT. As the hydrophobic promoter for the TPCT, we proposed a nanoscopically smooth Teflon-based hydrophobic coating on theoretical insights, experimentally evaluated its condensation heat transfer, and then developed its dropwise model with high accuracy by combining a recent dropwise model with the optimized parameters. Subsequently, the developed model was unified with the TPCT model to investigate the thermal characteristics of the TPCT system and the effect of the promoter thickness. The model results show that the Teflon-coated condenser with a thin thickness (≤ 10 nm) can significantly reduce the overall thermal resistance of the TPCT by up to 4.5 times compared to filmwise condensation. However, an increase in film thickness limited the performance enhancement of the TPCT due to the dominant thermal resistance through the film. By considering both the durability and the thermal resistance of the TPCT, we suggested the optimal Teflon film thickness as approximately 60 nm. This work provides physical insights and guidelines to obtain ideal TPCTs combined with dropwise condensers.