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Water Droplet Spreading and Wicking on Nanostructured Surfaces
Xue Chen1, Jiannan Chen1, Xiaolong Ouyang1
1Key Laboratory for Thermal Science and Power Engineering of Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory for CO2 Utilization and Reduction Technology of Beijing, Department of Thermal Engineering, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, China.
Abstract:
Phase-change heat transfer on nanostructured surfaces is an efficient cooling method for high heat flux devices due to its superior wettability. Liquid droplet spreading and wicking effect then dominate the heat transfer. Therefore, this study investigates the flow behavior after a droplet touches a nanostructured surface focusing on the ZnO nanowire surface with three different nanowire sizes and two array types (regular and irregular). The spreading diameter and the wicking diameter are measured against time. The results show that the average spreading and wicking velocities on a regular nanostructured surface are both smaller than those on an irregular nanostructured surface and that the nanowire size affects the liquid spreading and capillary wicking.
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