Experimental Investigation of Pool BHT Performance of R-141b on Micro/Nano-Porous Copper Coating Prepared by a Two-stage Electrodeposition Method

Abstract

Pool boiling heat transfer (BHT) of R-141b on po-rous Cu coated heating surface was experimentally studied. Porous Cu coating was fabricated on a plain Cu heating sur-face through a two-stage electrodeposition method. Surface characterization of Cu coating confirmed the successful syn-thesis of micro/nano-porous Cu coating. Experimental re-sults showed that the Cu coated heating surface introduced a significant enhancement in heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and a great reduction in wall superheat compared to the plain Cu surface. The maximum enhancement in HTC for the Cu coated heating surface was approximately 53% compared to the uncoated heating surface. This is believed to have re-sulted from the increase in active surface area, nucleation site density and cavitation activity owing to the microporous structure of Cu coating. Obtained results showed that the mi-croporous Cu coated heating surface could be employed in modern heat transfer applications.