Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 1, 2025

Pool-Boiling Heat-Transfer Enhancement on Cylindrical Surfaces with Hybrid Wettable Patterns
Published on: April 10, 2017
Liquid film-induced critical heat flux enhancement on structured surfaces
Jiaqi Li1, Daniel Kang1, Kazi Fazle Rabbi1
1Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Abstract:
Enhancing critical heat flux (CHF) during boiling with structured surfaces has received much attention because of its important implications for two-phase flow. The role of surface structures on bubble evolution and CHF enhancement remains unclear because of the lack of direct visualization of the liquid- and solid-vapor interfaces. Here, we use high-magnification in-liquid endoscopy to directly probe bubble behavior during boiling. We report the previously unidentified coexistence of two distinct three-phase contact lines underneath growing bubbles on structured surfaces, resulting in retention of a thin liquid film within the structures between the two contact lines due to their disparate advancing velocities. This finding sheds light on a previously unidentified mechanism governing bubble evolution on structured surfaces, which has notable implications for a variety of real systems using bubble formation, such as thermal management, microfluidics, and electrochemical reactors.
Related Concept Videos
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer II
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer
Conduction, accounting for approximately 3% of body heat loss at rest, is the process of exchanging heat between molecules of two materials in direct contact. This can result in both heat loss and gain. For instance, when the body is submerged in water, which conducts heat 20 times more effectively than air, it can either lose or gain significant...
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer I

