Arjang Shahriari

Heat Transfer Enhancement Accompanying Leidenfrost State Suppression at Ultrahigh Temperatures

The well-known Leidenfrost effect is the formation of a vapor layer between a liquid and an underlying hot surface. This insulating vapor layer severely degrades heat transfer and results in surface dryout. We measure the heat transfer enhancement and dryout prevention benefits accompanying electrostatic suppression of the Leidenfrost state. Interfacial electric fields in the vapor layer can attract liquid toward the surface and promote wetting. This principle can suppress dryout even at ultrahigh temperatures exceeding 500 °C, which is more than 8 times the Leidenfrost superheat for organic solvents. Robust Leidenfrost state suppression is observed for a variety of liquids, ranging from low electrical conductivity organic solvents to electrically conducting salt solutions. Elimination of the vapor layer increases heat dissipation capacity by more than 1 order of magnitude. Heat removal capacities exceeding 500 W/cm(2) are measured, which is 5 times the critical heat flux (CHF) of water on common engineering surfaces. Furthermore, the heat transfer rate can be electrically controlled by the applied voltage. The underlying science is explained via a multiphysics analytical model which captures the coupled electrostatic-fluid-thermal transport phenomena underlying electrostatic Leidenfrost state suppression. Overall, this work uncovers the physics underlying dryout prevention and demonstrates electrically tunable boiling heat transfer with ultralow power consumption.

Electric Field–Based Control and Enhancement of Boiling and Condensation

ABSTRACT This article reviews and analyzes recent advancements on boiling and condensation heat transfer enhancement via the use of electric fields. Historically, the majority of studies on phase change heat transfer enhancement have relied on passive approaches like surface engineering. Electric fields provide distinct options to enhance and control the nano/micro/mesoscale thermofluidic phenomena associated with boiling and condensation. This work focuses on the influence of electric fields on electrically conducting liquids like water and certain organic solvents. After a brief review of past work on electric field–based heat transfer enhancement using electrically insulating liquids, we summarize and discuss recent studies involving electrically conducting liquids. It is seen that electric fields can offer disruptive advancements and benefits in the control and enhancement of boiling and condensation. Perspectives, future research directions, and applications of these novel concepts are also discussed.

Electrical control and enhancement of boiling heat transfer during quenching

Heat transfer associated with boiling degrades at elevated temperatures due to the formation of an insulating vapor layer at the solid-liquid interface (Leidenfrost effect). Interfacial electrowetting (EW) fields can disrupt this vapor layer to promote liquid-surface wetting. We experimentally analyze EW-induced disruption of the vapor layer and measure the resulting enhanced cooling during the process of quenching. Imaging is employed to visualize the fluid-surface interactions and understand boiling patterns in the presence of an electrical voltage. It is seen that EW fields fundamentally change the boiling pattern, wherein a stable vapor layer is replaced by intermittent wetting of the surface. Heat conduction across the vapor gap is thus replaced with transient convection. This fundamental switch in the heat transfer mode significantly accelerates cooling during quenching. An order of magnitude increase in the cooling rate is observed, with the heat transfer seen approaching saturation at higher voltages. An analytical model is developed to extract voltage dependent heat transfer rates from the measured cooling curve. The results show that electric fields can alter and tune the traditional cooling curve. Overall, this study presents an ultralow power consumption concept to control the mechanical properties and metallurgy, by electrically tuning the cooling rate during quenching.

Metal-Foam-Based Ultrafast Electronucleation of Hydrates at Low Voltages

The induction time for the nucleation of hydrates can be significantly reduced by electronucleation, which consists of applying an electrical potential across the hydrate precursor solution. This study reveals that open-cell aluminum foam electrodes can reduce the electronucleation induction time by 150× when compared to nonfoam electrodes. Experiments with tetrahydrofuran hydrates show that aluminum foam electrodes trigger near-instantaneous nucleation (in only tens of seconds) at low voltages. Furthermore, this study suggests that two distinct interfacial mechanisms influence electronucleation, namely, electrolytic bubble generation and the formation of metal ion complex-based coordination compounds. These mechanisms (which depend on the electrode material and polarity) affect the induction time to vastly different extents. Coordination compound formation (verified via detection of metal ions in solution) exerts a much greater influence on electronucleation than the mechanistic effects associated with bubble generation. This work uncovers the benefits of using foams to promote electronucleation and shows that foams lead to more deterministic (as opposed to stochastic) nucleation when compared with nonfoam electrodes.

Electrostatic suppression of the Leidenfrost state on liquid substrates

An applied electric field can fundamentally eliminate the Leidenfrost effect (formation of a vapor layer at the solid-liquid interface at high temperatures). This study analyzes electrostatic suppression of the Leidenfrost state on liquid substrates. Electrostatic suppression on silicone oil and Woods metal (liquid alloy) is studied via experimentation, high-speed imaging, and analyses. It is seen that the nature of electrostatic suppression can be drastically different from that on a solid substrate. First, the Leidenfrost droplet completely penetrates into the silicone oil substrate and converts to a thin film under an electric field. This is due to the existence of an electric field inside the substrate and the deformability of the silicone oil interface. A completely different type of suppression is observed for Woods metal and solid substrates, which have low deformability and lack an electric field in the substrate. Second, the minimum voltage to trigger suppression is significantly lower on silicone oil when compared to Woods metal and solid substrates. Fundamental differences between these transitions are analyzed, and a multiphysics analytical model is developed to predict the vapor layer thickness on deformable liquids. Overall, this study lays the foundation for further studies on electrostatic manipulation of the Leidenfrost state on liquids.

Electrostatic suppression of the Leidenfrost state using AC electric fields

The formation of a vapor layer at the solid-liquid interface at high temperatures (Leidenfrost phenomenon) degrades heat transfer substantially. Application of an electric field in this vapor layer can fundamentally eliminate the Leidenfrost state by electrostatically attracting liquid towards the surface. This study analyzes the influence of AC electric fields on electrostatic suppression of the Leidenfrost state; previous studies have only utilized DC electric fields. In particular, the influence of the frequency of the AC waveform on Leidenfrost state suppression is analyzed using high speed visualization of liquid-vapor instabilities and heat transfer measurements of evaporating droplets. It is seen that the extent of suppression is reduced with increasing AC frequency. At sufficiently high frequencies, the influence of an applied voltage is completely negated, and electrostatic suppression of the Leidenfrost state can be completely eliminated. A first-order electromechanical model is used to explain ...

Electrical Suppression of Film Boiling During Quenching

Boiling heat transfer impacts the performance of various industrial processes like quenching, desalination and steam generation. At high temperatures, boiling heat transfer is limited by the formation of a vapor layer at the solid-liquid interface (Leidenfrost effect), where the low thermal conductivity of the vapor layer inhibits heat transfer. Interfacial electrowetting (EW) fields can disrupt this vapor layer to promote liquid-surface wetting. This concept works for a variety of quenching media including water and organic solvents. We experimentally analyze EW-induced disruption of the vapor layer, and measure the resulting enhanced cooling during quenching. Imaging is employed to visualize the fluid-surface interactions and understand boiling patterns in the presence of an electrical voltage. It is seen that EW fundamentally changes the boiling pattern, wherein, a stable vapor layer is replaced by intermittent wetting of the surface. This switch in the heat transfer mode substantially reduces the cool down time. An order of magnitude increase in the cooling rate is observed. An analytical model is developed to extract instantaneous voltage dependent heat transfer rates from the cooling curve. The results show that electric fields can alter and tune the traditional cooling curve. Overall, this study presents a new concept to control the mechanical properties and metallurgy, by electrical control of the quench rate.Copyright

Film Boiling Heat Transfer Enhancement via Electrostatic Leidenfrost State Suppression

Boiling heat transfer has enormous impact on the effectiveness of various industrial processes like steam generation, desalination, and nuclear reactor operations. Heat transfer in the film boiling regime is significantly reduced as compared to the nucleate boiling regime due to the existence of a vapor layer at the solid-liquid interface (Leidenfrost effect). This vapor layer degrades heat transfer by up to two orders of magnitude and causes dryout, which can result in severe temperature excursions. This work maps out the heat transfer benefits of electrostatic suppression of the Leidenfrost state. Electrical suppression of the Leidenfrost state is observed for a variety of liquids, including organic solvents, water and electrically conducting salt solutions. Successful Leidenfrost state suppression is observed with moderate voltages even at ultrahigh temperatures exceeding 550 °C. Elimination of the vapor layer increases heat dissipation capacity of film boiling by more than one order of magnitude; up to 45X enhancement was measured in this work. This work also introduces the concept of tunable film boiling heat transfer. Overall, electrically-enhanced boiling can enable a new class of technologies for active control and enhancement of boiling heat transfer, with various applications in energy systems.Copyright