Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 263275

www.elsevier.com/locate/etfs

Heat transfer enhancement in pool boiling of a refrigerant uid

with wire nets structures
A. Franco

a,*

, E.M. Latrofa a, V.V. Yagov

Dipartimento di Energetica L. Poggi, Universita` di Pisa, Via Diotisalvi, 2, 56126 Pisa, Italy
Moscow Power Engineering Institute (Technical University), Krasnokazarmennaya, 14 Moscow 111250, Russia
Received 14 February 2005; received in revised form 3 May 2005; accepted 4 July 2005

Abstract
Among many methods to enhance boiling heat transfer by means of porous coatings, the use of the wire nets covering the heated
surface demonstrates some advantages due to its simplicity and low cost. Easiness of a wire net mounting at the heated wall allows
testing many dierent nets and their combinations. This paper presents the experimental results on heat transfer and crisis using the
dielectric refrigerant R141b pool boiling under atmospheric pressure. The analysis carried out in the present paper demonstrates
that success in boiling heat transfer enhancement is provided not only by the nucleation sites density increase, but also by designing
the channels in the porous structure to escape the generated vapor. Unsatisfactory results in relation to CHF value have been
obtained with rather thick porous coating. In this case the problem is to provide vapor evacuation from the wall. Rather essential
heat transfer coecient and CHF increase has been observed while the porous structure has been formed with 37 layers of nets
using wire of 0.250.40 mm diameter and mesh aperture of approximately 2 mm. The nets of stainless steel gave the greater eect
with respect to copper, aluminium and brass. It is demonstrated that the presence of porous coatings brings about a considerable
enhancement of the thermal stability of the system. An approximate model of crisis in boiling at the surface coated with metallic nets
has been developed.

2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Pool boiling; Heat transfer enhancement; Critical heat ux; Metal mesh structures; Refrigerants

1. Introduction
Heat transfer in pool boiling is one of the most intense ways of heat removal in engineering devices. For
this reason, boiling is extensively used in modern technologies and is expected to be used as cooling method
for future electronic devices. Commonly heat transfer
coecient (HTC) in boiling is high enough in order
not to seek any ways of its enhancement. However, at
rather low heat uxes especially in boiling of liquids with
low thermal conductivity heat transfer enhancement

Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +39 50 2217154.

E-mail address: alessandro.franco@ing.unipi.it (A. Franco).

0894-1777/$ - see front matter
2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.expthermusci.2005.07.002

becomes important for practice. In particular, it relates

to refrigerants and some other dielectric liquids boiling.
For the latter case, besides an increase of HTC, the
problem arises to shift boiling crisis to the higher heat
uxes.
The both above aims can be achieved by creating different surface conditions belonging to three main
groups: attached promoters, porous coatings and articial roughness, such as micro and macro-roughness,
nning, vibrorolling, tunnel-and-pore forming [14].
Among the aforementioned, a method particularly interesting to obtain a heat transfer enhancement is the use
of porous coatings. There are many ways for fabrication of porous coatings: wire mesh structures, metallic
bre porous coatings, sintering or brazing of particles,

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A. Franco et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 263275

Nomenclature
g
hLG
H
ki
l
L
nc
N
p
q
r
R
Rd
R*
Q
t
t
Tw
Ts
U1
w0

gravitational acceleration [m/s2]

latent heat of vaporisation [J/kg]
curvature of the liquid lm surface in Eq. (4) [m]
numerical factors (dimensionless)
characteristic length [m]
mesh aperture [mm]
number of channels for the vapor escape
number of mesh (dimensionless)
pressure [N/m2]
heat ux [W/m2]
radius [m]
bubble radius [m]
bubble departure radius [m]
equilibrium bubble radius [m]
heat transfer rate [W]
current time of bubble growth in Eq. (10) [s]
time in Figs. 13 and 14 [s]
basic heated surface temperature [K]
uid saturation temperature [K]
terminal velocity of bubble rise [m/s]
average velocity of evaporation [m/s]

electrolytic deposition, ame or plasma spraying of

particles. The general object of these surface treatments
is to increase a number of nucleation sites. The experiments show that the porous coatings can lead to a significant decrease of wall superheat at boiling incipience and
to essential intensication of heat transfer especially at
low heat uxes.
Boiling heat transfer on surfaces covered with porous
coatings has been studied for dierent applications since
the 1970s. Several investigations dealt with experimental
and theoretical analysis of pool boiling heat transfer and
crisis with porous coatings using water or refrigerants
[59]. The main eect of the porous coatings is to reduce
the wall superheat for the same heat ux [10]. Moreover,
in some cases an increase of critical heat ux (CHF) can
be obtained too. A commonly employed illustration of
possible porous coatings inuence on boiling curve is
given in Fig. 1. In this gure one can see rst that a porous coating always leads to the earlier boiling incipience
and to the increase of HTC at rather low heat uxes in
comparison to nucleate boiling at the smooth surface.
But second it is clear that CHF can be either higher
(curve 1) or lower (curve 3) in comparison to the corresponding value at the smooth surface depending on the
combination of pore diameter, the coating thickness and
thermophysical properties of the coating and of the
uid. Curve 2 demonstrates that in boiling on the porous coating crisis is not so dramatic phenomenon as
on the clean surface. It is possible during transient boiling regime to return to nucleate boiling regime decreas-

Greek symbols
DTsat wall superheat [K]
d0
average thickness of the macrolm [m]
k
thermal conductivity [W/mK]
U
wire mesh diameter [mm]
q
density [kg/m3]
r
surface tension [N/m]
m
viscosity [m2/s]
Subscripts
calc
calculated
cr
critical
dp
dry patch
e
equivalent
exp
experimental
G
of the vapor phase
l
linear
L
of the liquid phase

Fig. 1. Typical qualitative curve identifying the change of the boiling

curve with porous coatings.

ing heat ux. Curve 4 corresponds to stable lm boiling

at the wall with porous coating.
An alternative and cheap way to obtain a porous
coating is use of metallic wire mesh structures (grids)
like those used in the hydraulic lters. Those metal grids
are available in dierent dimensions and can be simply
adapted to a surface, resulting in a cheap means to
obtain a porous coating and a promising heat transfer

A. Franco et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 263275

augmentation technology. The wicked surface obtained

with a layer of mesh is a solution used within the evaporator section of a heat pipe in order to return the liquid
against gravity and to ensure good liquid distribution.
The performance of a heat pipe depends on its geometry, the working uid, the capillary wicking material,
the operating temperature and the applied heat ux.
Boiling in capillary porous structures, according to
Dunn and Reay [11], is one of the main causes determining the maximum attainable heat ux in industrial applications of heat pipes. The question arises, if there is a
possibility of increasing heat ux related to boiling with
respect to the CHF obtained with smooth surfaces. If
the answer is positive it could be possible to have capillary eect without reducing the heat transfer limit.
The mesh structures use, though it is diused in the
heat pipe technology, was not widely investigated in
pool boiling, especially concerning boiling crisis. The
wire net, like other porous coatings, modies the boiling
curve, with respect to the smooth surface. The authors
of [12] describe an experimental study of pool boiling
of refrigerants R11 and R113 using wire mesh structures, but their interest remains mainly the denition
and classication of heat transfer mechanisms and no
particular information about critical heat ux is given.
Other investigations have been carried out using water
as coolant as it is reported in [13] and recently with
methanol and HFE7100 in [14]. Dierent results have
been obtained in relation to a mesh structure inuence
on CHF. While according to [13] an increase of CHF
up to 30% seems possible, in [14] the authors state that
CHF is markedly reduced for meshed surface both with
methanol and HFE7100. One can conclude that the effect of a mesh structure depends on the particular uid
used in the experiments. But in case of a metallic mesh
coating it is possible to face with an inuence of some
hardly controlled eects, such as the way of the mesh
mounting on the heated surface. In particular, in [12]
there is no information about this subject.
A number of phenomenological theories have been
put forth to explain boiling heat transfer from porous
coatings. Due to a complexity of ow conditions and
phase-change processes inside and near the porous surface, analytical models have not been developed that
have proven to be applicable over a wide range of physical parameters without using of empirical constants
[15,16]. The idea that the porous coating permits an increase in number of active centres of vapor generation is
accepted, but a lot of open questions remain. Basing on
the recent experimental results by Liter and Kaviany
[17], one can hope to obtain a remarkable CHF increase
designing such porous structure, which separates liquid
ow to the heated surface, and vapor ow from the surface. The observations of Liter and Kaviany are related
to the modulated porous layer coating, but some possibilities exist to realize this idea using special types of

265

wire nets and their combinations without resorting to

complex porous coating structures like those proposed
in [17].
The present paper describes and summarizes the results of an investigation of heat transfer in pool boiling
in presence of wire mesh coatings. The parameters,
which have inuence on heat transfer and boiling crisis
that has been investigated are mesh sizes, number of layers and submergence of the wick. Moreover, an objective of the paper is a theoretical analysis of wire nets
eect on boiling crisis.

2. Experiments description
The analysis carried out in the paper seeks to improve
understanding of pool boiling mechanism and of burnout incipience in presence of metallic wire mesh structures. It begins with an experimental investigation. To
investigate the problem a test facility has been used
which permits the measurement of pool boiling heat
transfer from a planar horizontal surface covered with
layers of a wire net.
2.1. Experimental setup
In the experimental facility, schematically represented
in Fig. 2, a metallic dissipator heated from below is
mounted in an insulating teon box (Fig. 3) and inserted
inside a glass cylindrical vessel (diameter 400 mm and
height 1000 mm). The vessel contains about 25 dm3 of
saturated refrigerant uid HCFC141b maintained at a
pressure very close to the atmospheric one. Table 1 presents the thermophysical properties of the uid
HCFC141b. It is seen that this uid is similar to the
refrigerants R11 and R113.
The dissipator of aluminium alloy (thermal conductivity k = 208 W/mK) is insulated by means of glass

Fig. 2. Experimental setup (schematic).

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A. Franco et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 263275

Fig. 4. Wire mesh structure dimensions.

N 1=U L;
Fig. 3. Test dissipator and position of the wire nets on the test surface.

Table 1
Saturation properties of HCFC141b (1 bar)
Liquid density, qL (kg/m3)
Vapour density, qG (kg/m3)
Enthalpy of vaporization, hLG (kJ/kg)
Viscosity of liquid, lL (Pa s)
Viscosity of vapor, lG (Pa s)
Surface tension, r (N/m)
Specic heat of vapor, cpG (kJ/kg K)
Specic heat of liquid, cpL (kJ/kg K)
Thermal conductivity of liquid, kL (W/mK)
Thermal conductivity of vapor, kG (W/mK)
Boiling temperature, Ts (C)
Critical pressure, pcr (bar)
Critical temperature, Tcr (C)
Molecular weight, M (kg/mol)

1234.9
4.765
224.3
0.000409
0.0000125
0.0184
0.791
1.155
0.098
0.0087
32.2
42.5
204.4
0.117

wool and is mounted inside the teon box. As is seen in

Fig. 3 its upper part is a cylindrical rod of 30 mm in
diameter, which top end forms the heat transfer surface
(with total area about 7.07 cm2), while the area of the
bottom surface is quite higher. The dissipator is heated
by the circular electric heater, disposed at the base and
energy is supplied with a DC HP-6575A power generator. The surface heat ux is also controlled with the gradient method basing on temperatures measured by three
copper-constantan thermocouples. Thermocouple outputs were measured and recorded using a PC based data
logging, HP-34970A, connected to a computer. The
thermal control of the system is carried out by means
of an external cryostat maintained at a temperature of
20 C.

where U is the wire diameter and L the opening length of

the metallic net.
These structures, commonly used in the industrial ltering, are available in a wide range of geometries and
materials. In particular, in the present experiments,
mesh structures with wire diameter between 0.1 mm
and 1 mm and aperture between 0.1 mm and 2.5 mm
have been tested.
As materials for the metallic wire mesh, mainly stainless steel (AISI 304) has been used. Besides some wire
nets made from aluminium, copper and brass have been
tested in order to obtain some meaningful comparison.
The eect of the height of the wire mesh structure has
been tested too by changing a number of net layers. Different packaging solutions have been tested.
The superposition of the various wire nets, can be obtained in a random way or controlling the positions of
the channels, like shown in Fig. 5. The second option
is generally used.
In this way, considering dierent wire mesh geometries, a number of layers and dierent materials, the
inuence of each parameter on HTC, CHF and burnout
development can be evaluated.
2.3. Experimental procedure
Boiling curves were generated for each surface tested
with a well dened procedure. An inuence of four inde-

2.2. Capillary porous structure

The porous coating has been obtained with the superposition of several layers of wire nets on the circular
heat transfer surface. The grids were pressed on the surface of the dissipator using a circular ring. The type of
the mesh structures is a plain woven cloth type in which
the warp and weft wires intersect alternately one below
and one above the other forming 90 right angles as
schematically represented in Fig. 4. The mesh number
N is dened as the number of openings per unit length

Fig. 5. Packaging method.

A. Franco et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 263275

pendent parameters has been studied: wire diameter,

material, mesh aperture and thickness of the porous
structure. The uid contained in the apparatus was
heated for about 1 h in order to reach its saturation temperature and to remove dissolved gases before testing.
Tests were carried out for pool boiling of saturated
HCFC141b at a pressure a little lower than the atmospheric pressure (0.85 bar). Measurements were made
after steady state conditions were attained at each
setting.
After each voltage change (heat-ux increment), it
took as a rule about 15 min until stable condition is
reached. The experiments were carried out within the
range of heat uxes q = 50300 kW/m2. Three consecutive runs were conducted for each heater tested. Similar
boiling curves for each surface assured the consistency
and repeatability of the data. The temperature measurement precision was calibrated previously to be within
0.1 C. The relative error on the measurement of the
temperature dierence between the wall surface and
the saturation temperature is of 3.6% and the error on
the heat ux was estimated to be within 3.2%. The data
relative to the smooth surface were obtained with a
similar methodology.

3. Experimental results
The experimental study has been carried out using a
large number of dierent wire mesh structures. Well
reproducible results have been obtained for heat ux q
vs. wall superheat DT = Tw
Ts up to the CHF, with
the maximum dierence of 15% in CHF, while the
experiments repeated with the same wire mesh at the
dierent time moments.
3.1. Nucleate boiling and crisis
A preliminary analysis (some results are summarized
in Fig. 6) was carried out by using various wire nets and
Smooth surface

=0.4 mm L=1.91 mm (random pkg)

200

=0.4 mm L=1.91 mm (ordered pkg)

q [kW/m2]

Compound mesh structure

100

50

10

12

14

16

18

(TW - TS) C
Fig. 6. Eects of wire net packaging on boiling and CHF.

20

267

dierent methods for their superposition. It appears

clearly that for increasing the CHF one has to use wire
nets with mesh aperture higher than double the wire
diameter. A limit level can be considered 1.4 mm for
the HCFC141b.
It was also observed that a casual packaging (a superposition of the nets without controlling the position of
the channels) determines a negative eect on the CHF.
Similarly, the superposition of nets with a variable mesh
aperture higher than the lower level of 1.4 mm (for
example superposition of mesh with apertures 1.5 mm,
1.9 mm and 2 mm) has no positive eects on the CHF.
To obtain a positive eect it is necessary to pay particular attention to the denition of conical vapor escape
channels that can be obtained only using particular
combinations of wire nets.
The dependencies q(DT) signicantly changed in
comparison to boiling at the smooth surface due to an
eect of the wire mesh structure. In particular, when
the heated surface is covered with the wire mesh:
boiling begins at the wall superheats appreciably
lower than those on the smooth surface;
heat transfer coecients markedly increased, especially at relatively low heat uxes;
CHF can be also sensibly higher than that of the
smooth surface.
To obtain the last eect with a common refrigerant
uid, as HCFC141b, it is necessary to use wire nets with
suciently large aperture. Basing on the experimental
investigations, the minimum value of a mesh aperture,
providing benecial eects in pool boiling, can be estimated as 1.4 mm. Only to give an example, this value
is close to the one considered as minimum intern spacing, resulting in high eect of extended surface in pool
boiling of a refrigerant uid. This was revealed in [18]
for R113 and experimentally conrmed in [19] for
HCFC141b. For a smaller mesh aperture, though it is
possible to increase a nucleation sites density, the problem arises with stable vapor escape at rather high heat
uxes. The next Tables and Figures provide a summary
of the results obtained in the experiments.
The parameters considered as aecting the CHF are:
mesh aperture, wire diameter, mesh material, and number of channels. The last one depends on the mesh aperture and on the wire diameter. Table 2 provides the
CHF values obtained for various combinations of the
above-mentioned parameters. A number of channels
(nc) formed in the net is also reported. As it can be seen
from Table 2, an appropriate choice of the above mesh
parameters permits to obtain an increase of CHF up to
values 3040% higher than for a smooth surface
(198 kW/m2 for HCFC141b).
Fig. 7 depicts the pool boiling curves obtained with
the dierent AISI 304 wire meshes. One can see that

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A. Franco et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 263275

Table 2
CHF obtained with the metallic wire nets used
L [mm]

AISI
AISI
AISI
AISI

304
304
304
304

AISI
AISI
AISI
AISI
AISI
AISI
AISI
AISI
AISI
AISI
AISI
AISI

304
304
304
304
304
304
304
304
304
304
304
304

0.13
0.12
0.13
0.12
1.6
0.48
2.4
1
Smooth surface
2
0.7
1.58
0.4
2
0.5
1.8
0.7
1.91
0.4
2.38
0.4
2.12
0.4
1.99
0.32
2.06
0.25
2.38
0.4
2.12
0.4
2.17
0.36

No. of layers

182
70

3
6
5
3
6
6
6
8
4
3
3
7

108
195
122
122
146
103
120
146
145
103
120
120

=0.12 m m , L=0.13 m m
smooth surface

100
90
80
70
60
50

10

16

20

(TW - TS) [C]

Fig. 7. Heat ux for dierent mesh (material AISI 304).

the surface coating with the metallic wire nets permits to

enhance heat transfer in pool boiling in comparison to
the smooth surface. Only in the vicinity of CHF the wall
superheat and HTC become close to the corresponding
values for the smooth surface. The wire net with the
mesh aperture 0.12 mm and the wire diameter 0.13 mm
(lines 1 and 2 of Table 2) presents the single case of negative eect on both HTC and CHF. Probably, this structure forms too small channels for vapor escape. The nets
presented in Fig. 7 demonstrate a positive inuence on
CHF value or an absence of any visible eect.
It should be noted that in the major part of the experiments heat ux vs. wall superheat dependencies were
similar to the one typical for nucleate pool boiling on
the commercial clean surface. The slope of the boiling
curves obtained on the coated surface was usually
slightly less than for the clean surface (q  DT2 against
an ordinary q  DT3), but in the case of the porous coat-

qcr,exp [kW/m2]

nc

1
15
5
2

=0.7 mm, L=1.8 mm

=0.36 mm, L =2.17 mm
=0.4 mm, L=1.58 mm
=1 mm, L=2.4 mm

200

q [kW/m2]

U [mm]

58.5
76.9
143.0
187.3
198.0
199.0
202.7
208.3
212.0
232.1
252.7
262.1
261.5
262.3
262.9
265.0
281.4

qcr,calc [kW/m2]

qcr,exp/qcr,calc

224.5
211.3

0.64
0.886

218.1
232.1
232.7
213.9
241.2
252.6
246.5
255.0
271.3
252.6
246.5
253.3

0.913
0.873
0.895
0.991
0.962
1.00
1.063
1.025
0.967
1.041
1.075
1.11

ing obtained by sintering metal particles sometimes a

constant heat transfer coecient with heat ux increase
is observed [17].
The following gures reect a separate eect of each
parameter of the mesh. As shown in Fig. 8, an increase
of the mesh aperture for the same material and the same
wire diameter leads to variation of CHF from a level
typical for the smooth surface (for a mesh aperture of
1.58 mm) to a level of about 280 kW/m2 (for mesh aperture of 2.17 mm).
An eect of the reduction of a wire diameter, as
shown in Fig. 9, can be important in the range of wire
diameters from 0.7 to 0.4 mm. A variation from 0.4 to
0.25 mm at the same mesh aperture does not cause an
appreciable variation of CHF.
It seems also remarkable to underline an inuence of
wire material on CHF. In general it can be observed that
the material with lower thermal conductivity permits to

=0.4 mm, L=1.58 mm

=0.4 mm, L=1.91 mm
=0.36 mm, L=2.17 mm
Smooth surface

300

200

q [kW/m2]

Material

100
90
80
70
60
50

10

(TW - TS) [C]

16

20

Fig. 8. Heat ux for dierent mesh aperture (material AISI 304).

A. Franco et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 263275

q [kW/m2]

Summarizing:

=0.4 mm, L=1.91 mm

=0.5 mm, L=2 mm
=0.7 mm, L=2 mm
Smooth surface

200

a ne mesh structure enhances heat transfer at low

heat uxes, but causes its decrease at the higher ones
and a reduction of CHF with respect to the smooth
surface;
the larger wire mesh structure leads to a lower
decrease of wall superheat at low heat uxes, but provides an increase of CHF;
the mesh structure, while promotes an increase of
nucleation sites density, creates also an additional
resistance to vapor escape, so that its thickness, i.e.
a number of layers inuences the results.

100
90
80
70
60
50

10

16

(TW - TS) [C]

20

In general, boiling crisis depends on mechanisms of

liquid supply to and vapor escape from the heated surface, and therefore in our case CHF can be limited by
liquid and vapor ow resistances, mainly inuenced by
the mesh aperture. During the experimental analysis
the rst attempt has been done to study the inuence
on heat transfer and boiling crisis of the modulated porous structures combining the nets with dierent wire
diameter and mesh apertures. A modulated porous coating structure was obtained with the superposition of different wire nets. A mesh with a low aperture was placed
on the basic heat transfer surface and the nets with the
larger aperture were superimposed above. This permits
to obtain the porous surface structure, which is similar
to the modulated porous layer coating proposed in [17].
The resulting conical vapor escape channels allows to
obtain an increase of CHF as for the third case of Table
3. Capillary channels formed in this way have a simple
geometry, and no vapor trapping occurs. In fact, the
use of mesh with U = 0.40 mm, L = 2.12 mm in combination with a more ner net disposed on the basic surface gives a slight increase of CHF in comparison with
the cases in which the aforementioned net
U = 0.40 mm, L = 2.12 mmis used alone (results relative to 3 or 6 layers in Table 2).
The similar conclusions can be done in relation to the
cases 1 and 2 of Table 3, if they are compared with the
corresponding cases in Table 2. In the meantime it is
seen from the case 1 of Table 3, that a very ne wire
net as a base does not give positive eect in comparison
to boiling at the smooth surface, though the CHF value

Fig. 9. Heat ux for dierent wire dimensions (material AISI 304).

obtain the better results in relation to CHF. In Fig. 10

two couples of materials are compared when the same
geometry of the wire mesh structure is used, stainless
steel and cooper and stainless steel and brass, respectively. Especially in the rst case, for high dierence in
the thermal conductivity of the two materials
(k = 15 W/mK vs. k = 382 W/mK) a sensible variation
of the CHF was observed. The lower dierence was observed in the case of comparing stainless steel with brass
(k = 98 W/mK).

AISI 304 =0.36 mm, L=2.17 mm

Copper =0.36 mm, L=2.17 mm
AISI 304 =0.40 mm, L=1.58 mm
Brass
=0.40 mm, L=1.58 mm
Smooth surface

300

q [kW/m2]

200

100
90
80
70
60
50

10

269

16

20

(TW - TS) [C]

Fig. 10. Inuence of mesh material on boiling heat transfer.

Table 3
Inuence of the material of the metallic wire nets
Material

L [mm]

U [mm]

No. of layers

nc

qcr,exp [kW/m2]

qcr,calc [kW/m2]

qcr,exp/qcr,calc

Aluminium

1.4

0.24

282

180.7

251.6

0.718

Brass
AISI 304

1.58
1.58

0.4
0.4

6
6

195
195

194.9
202.7

232.1
232.1

0.84
0.873

Copper
AISI 304

2.17
2.17

0.36
0.36

7
7

120
120

211.5
281.4

253.3
253.3

0.835
1.11

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A. Franco et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 263275

in this case is essentially higher than in the cases 1 and 2

of Table 2.
3.2. Transition to lm boiling
A porous coating is known to change characteristics
of boiling transition from nucleate to the lm mode in
comparison to boiling on a clean surface. (see, for example [13]). The dierent possible types of such transients
are shown in Fig. 1. As a rule, the nucleate/lm boiling
transition on the coated wall is not so dramatic as on the
smooth surface. The similar peculiarities are observed in
our experimental study of boiling on the surface coated
with a wire mesh structure.
In all experimental runs reported in Tables 24 boiling crisis was reached. In general, for the refrigerant
HCFC141b the wall superheat about 20 K identies an
incipience of boiling regime variation. On the smooth
surface the transition to lm boiling occurs very quickly
with a temperature increase of 1020 K/s. If metallic
wire nets covers the heat transfer surface, a crisis evolution changes signicantly, becoming milder, with considerable increase of the characteristic time. The
transition occurs with a temperature increase rate of
0.10.3 K/s. The transition incipience can be identied
not only by means of the wall temperature increase,
but also due to visual observations. Fig. 11 allows to image some typical events of the crisis development (steps
36). At rst one can see a decrease of the number of
bubbles and an increase of their detachment diameter
at the start of transition. The process continues with a
progressive reduction of a number of bubbles escaping
from the surface. The transition takes several minutes,
the steps between 3 and 6 in Fig. 11 reect the time
period of 200 s.
The using of mesh structures demonstrates some
peculiar dierences if compared to the nned surface,
in relation to a rate of the wall temperature rise. This
is shown in Figs. 12 and 13. Really, a nned surface also
can be considered as a good mean to reduce the negative
eect of boiling crisis due to a possibility of coexistence
of dierent boiling regimes along the ns [19]. But, as
clearly appears in Fig. 12, when a single n (of 2 mm
thickness and 10 mm height) is applied on the smooth

Fig. 11. Typical sequence of boiling crisis development for a wire mesh
structure.

Table 4
Eect of superposition of dierent mesh
Material

Mesh dimensions [mm]

qcr [kW/m2]

AISI 304

1 Layer U = 0.12 L = 0.13

3 Layers U = 0.36 L = 2.17

194.6

AISI 304

2 Layers U = 0.4 L = 1.4

1 Layer U = 0.4 L = 1.58
4 Layers U = 0.5 L = 2

215.3

AISI 304

1 Layer U = 0.23 L = 1.45

3 Layers U = 0.40 L = 2.12

275.9
Fig. 12. Sequence of boiling crisis development for ns [19].

A. Franco et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 263275

220

= 0.5 mm, L=2 mm

AISI 304

200

single fin (tip temp.)

180

TW [C]

160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0

150

300

450

600

750

900

1050

271

is an unambiguous distinction between the regimes of

pool and lm boiling, the same cannot be concluded
when a wire mesh structure is used.
For practical applications it seems to be signicant
that the nucleate/lm boiling transition at the surface
with metal nets coating occurs rather mildly. If at boiling on smooth surface the wall temperature grows very
quickly after the maximum heat ux is exceeded and
the dangerous temperature level can be reached within
a few seconds, in the experiments with metal nets the
wall temperature increases rather slowly and transition
to lm boiling takes several minutes.

t (s)
Fig. 13. The wall temperature growth after crisis incipience for wire
mesh coating and for a nned surface.

surface, a well dened transition point between pool

boiling and lm boiling can be evidenced. The experimental analysis of the single n in pool boiling was carried out using the same experimental setup and similar
operating conditions. Among the various results, it can
be remarked that about four seconds after beginning
of a transient regime an increase of the n tip temperature of about 60 can be observed. A similar rise is not
observed for the wire mesh, as shown in Fig. 14 that
provides the details of the post-critical behavior of the
wall temperature with wire mesh structures for the
major part of the experiments for which the CHF is
reported in Tables 2 and 3.
The reason for reduction of the dramatic eect of
boiling crisis is a possibility of liquid supply to the
heated wall in some points after the crisis incipience
due to capillary eect. A fully developed lm boiling
condition occurs only when the surface superheat is
almost 80 K. While in boiling at a smooth surface there

120

100

=0.4 mm
L=2.12 mm

6 layers

6 layers

= 0.25 mm
L= 2.064 mm

=0.4 mm
L=1.58 mm
brass

=0.4 mm
L=2.12 mm
3 layers

=0.32 mm
L=1.99 mm

=0.4 mm
L=1.58 mm
=0.4 mm
L=2.38 mm

inox

3 layers

=0.7 mm
L= 2 mm

80

TW [C]

=0.4 mm
L=2.38 mm

60

=0.12 mm
L=0.13 mm

40
=0.36 mm
L=2.14 mm

20

200

400

600

800

1000

1200 1400

1600

1800

t (s)

Fig. 14. Post-CHF trend of the heated surface temperature for various
wire nets coatings.

4. Discussion
From the above analysis it is evident that an inuence
of wire nets on pool boiling heat transfer can be related
to the combination of an extended surface area, a capillary assist to liquid ow and an increased nucleation site
density eect. These eects depend on the thermophysical properties of surface and uid and on the parameters
of porous coating [20,21]. In the particular case of wire
nets the parameters of the porous coating analyzed are:
the wire diameter, U, the mesh aperture, L, the material
used and the number of layers.
Nucleation sites density is the most important internal characteristic of nucleate pool boiling. This parameter strongly depends on the wall superheat and in its
turn to the great extent determines the strong dependence of HTC on the wall superheat and on heat ux.
A porous coating presents a lot of ready nucleation
sites, which are probably numerous dierent cavities
lled at rst by gas and later in boiling process by vapor.
An activation of these nucleation centres requires very
low wall superheats and usually occurs at low heat
uxes. This can explain very high heat transfer enhancement in boiling due to porous coating at low heat uxes
and a weak general dependence of HTC on heat ux,
which is experimentally established in many studies
[13,17].
In distinction to other types of porous coatings, the
wire nets are featured with a regular structure. The
points of contact of the wire with the heated surface
(furthercontact points) are probably the most
favorable for vapor nucleation. Really, near these points
a liquid is in a stagnant state and can be easy superheated in comparison with the other points of the heat
transfer surface. The nucleation sites are activated
mainly in the contact points. Their density can be estimated as to be proportional to N2, where N is determined by Eq. (1). This simple estimation for the nets
used in the present experiments gives the reasonable values of the nucleation sites density, which are consistent
with the experimental measurements [22] and approximate theoretical predictions [23,24] for a clean surface.

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A. Franco et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 263275

The negative inuence of thermal conductivity of the

wire net material on heat transfer in boiling is in a qualitative accordance with the above hypothesis. The higher
conductivity, the higher rate of heat removal from the
contact points along the wire, the less liquid superheat
in these points.
When several layers of wire nets are placed on the
heated surface one can expect an additional (in comparison to one-layer coating) eect of liquid stagnation and
overheating which leads to an increase of nucleation
sites density. However, an opposite eect of an increase
of hydraulic resistance to vapor escape states a natural
limit for this way of heat transfer enhancement. Intuitively it is clear that for any given combination of mesh
structure, uid properties and controlling parameters a
denite optimal number of layers have to exist. For
the present experimental conditions this number lies in
the range of 37 layers.
For a given wire mesh, dierent contact points cannot be quite identical. It means that an activation of
vapor generation sites in the dierent contact points
occurs at the dierent wall superheats. A wire mesh
structure presents a lot of potentially active nucleation
sites. So boiling incipience at the coated surface occurs
at the lower wall superheats than in boiling on the
clean surface and enough many nucleation sites are
activated at the very beginning of nucleate boiling.
As a result heat transfer intensity in boiling on the wall
with a wire mesh structure at low heat uxes is always
higher than on the smooth surface. The further wall
superheat increase leads to an increase of nucleation
sites density, but to not as strong as at the clean surface. This explains the lower slope of q vs. DT dependence in boiling on the coated surface in comparison
to the clean one. This slope, however, is essentially
higher than in boiling on the other types of porous
coating, as in [13,17].
A porous coating in general, as it is discussed above
demonstrates a contradictory inuence on CHF value.
Now it is brought out clearly that a hydrodynamic limit
for boiling crisis, if it is, corresponds to such heat ux
values which are 1020 times higher than the ones experimentally measured in boiling on clean surfaces
[22,25,26]. This limit can be achieved if an average velocity of vapor escaping the heated surface exceeds the terminal velocity of falling liquid drops. So a porous
coating inuence on CHF has to be connected with
some processes inside the porous structure. Firstly, the
porous coating provides an additional liquid supply to
the heated surface due to capillary eects resulting in
CHF increase in comparison to boiling on the clean surface. But secondly, it creates an additional hydraulic
resistance for vapor escape resulting in the earlier crisis
incipience.
A possibility to build up a universal model of boiling crisis on the enhanced heated wall seems to be unre-

alistic. In the present study an approximate model of

crisis in pool boiling on the heated wall coated with
metallic wire nets is proposed. The model is valid if
hydraulic resistance to vapor escape does not aect the
CHF. It means practically that a number of layers of
wire mesh structure is low enough (not more than 7)
and aperture is essentially larger than wire diameter
(L > 2U).
The main idea of the model develops the approach related in [25,26], according which boiling crisis is caused
by the irreversible increase of dry spots area on the
heated wall. Commonly in pool boiling at high heat
uxes very large mushroom shaped vapor bubbles are
observed on the heated wall. A liquid macrolm exists
beneath these bubbles up to crisis. An average void fraction above the macrolm is very high, higher than 0.9
according to the many known measurements. In the
macrolm there are a lot of dry spots, through which
the bubbles are fed with vapor from the regions of an intense evaporation. These regions are located along the
interline, that is along the dry spot boundary. Now their
existence can be evidently proved not only by means of
the speculative analysis, but also by numerical simulation in several works (see the corresponding references
in [26]).
The liquid macrolm thickness is determined as it
was proposed in [24], that is analogously to a dynamic
boundary layer thickness. A characteristic length l0 is
a distance between the neighboring dry spots (in our
case l0 = L + U), a characteristic velocity is an average
velocity of vapor generation:
w0 q=hLG  qG .

So, an average liquid macrolm thickness is as

follows:
s
mL U  hLG qG
1=2
d0 km  l0 =w0 k 
;
3
q
where k is a numerical factor.
According to [24] the main reason for the liquid
inow into the zone of intense evaporation is the capillary pressure gradient. The pressure gradient in liquid
macrolm in the direction from the dry spot center is
expressed as follows:
dpL
dH
;

2r
dr
dr

where H is a curvature of the liquid lm surface. As it is

grounded in [24,27], a rigorous analytical calculation of
this value in a general case of a commercial heated surface is practically impossible. In the above works a
method of physical estimations was successfully used.
Far from CHF in nucleate boiling the dry spots are
small. Their probable size is about an equilibrium vapor
bubble radius R*, that is an order of one micrometer or
less under typical conditions. This size was assumed to

A. Franco et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 263275

be the minimal curvature radius; the maximal one was

determined as the liquid macrolm thickness at a zone
of intensive liquid evaporation. So the curvature gradient of the liquid macrolm surface in boiling at rather
low heat uxes was determined as dH/dr  (R* dm)
1.
At high wall heat uxes (near crisis) several neighboring nucleate sites can coalesce, forming a larger dry spot.
For these conditions in [25,26] the following expression
for the curvature gradient was obtained: dH =dr  1=d20 .
The main ideas of [25,26] on boiling crisis mechanism
are assumed to be valid for crisis in boiling on the heated
wall coated with several layers of wire nets, as the proper
volume of the nets is relatively small at the specied
geometry. The mesh structure aects the particular
mechanisms of the macrolm formation and liquid ow
in the vicinity of the dry spot boundary. For the present
experimental conditions, the liquid macrolm is assumed
to be always placed inside the porous structure. Due to
small volume of metallic net a structure of two-phase
medium is assumed to be similar to that observed in boiling at smooth surface. A wire nets coating brings into an
analysis two new linear scales in comparison to boiling
on a clean surface, namely a wire diameter U and a spacing between the contact points l0 = U + L. The latter was
already used in determination of the thickness of the liquid macrolm. The former aects the gradient of capillary pressure, which is responsible for liquid ow into the
intense evaporation zone near the boundary of the dry
spot. As a contact point is the most favorable for a vapor
nuclei formation, it is reasonable to assume that near
boiling crisis the contact points become the centers of
dry spots. It is reasonable to suppose that a wire diameter
has to be included in the determination of liquid pressure
gradient in the macrolm in the vicinity of the interline.
So one can write
dpL k 1  r

;
U  d0
dr

where k1 is a numerical factor.

Mass ow rate per liquid lm width unit at laminar
regime is proportional to d30 . If there is a balance of
inowing and evaporated liquid at the dry patch boundary, bearing in mind Eq. (5) one can obtain an equation
for a linear heat ux density at this boundary in the following form:
hLG r d20
.
ql k 2 
m U

Heat ux per a dry spot area (qdp) can be calculated

from the above expression by means of division by a linear size of the dry spot ldp : qdp  ql/ldp. Far from boiling
crisis an average heat ux related to the dry spot area
(qdp) is much greater than an average one related to
the total heat transfer area (q). When the latter approaches to the CHF the above two values come close
due to decrease of the thickness of liquid macrolm

273

(according to Eqs. (3) and (5)). At q > qdp evaporation

rate at the dry spot boundary becomes higher than the
equilibrium one corresponding to liquid inow to this
zone. This means that dry spot area begins to grow irreversibly, i.e. boiling crisis occurs. Consequently, an
equality
q qdp qcr

determines boiling crisis condition, because at the higher

q a balance between evaporating and coming liquid is
upset.
Thus, the linear size of the dry patch (ldp) at the near
critical conditions is now the only value to be determined in order to obtain an equation for CHF. Keeping
the main assumptions of [25,26] we suppose that in boiling at the heated wall coated with the wire mesh a critical size of dry patch is proportional to vapor bubble
departure radius:
ldp / Rd .

For rather large vapor bubbles the so-called inertial

scheme of departure is valid [27]. This means that a
vapor bubble remains at the wall while its growth rate
exceeds a large bubble terminal rise velocity. Equality
R = U1 determines a vapor bubble departure condition.
The terminal rise velocity of a large gas
bubble in a quip
escent liquid is known to be U 1 gRe where Re is a
radius of a sphere of an equivalent volume. So the problem is to nd a bubble growth rate in boiling at the surface coated with wire mesh. An analysis presented below
relates only to the conditions of high heat uxes just
before crisis. Under these conditions at rather high reduced pressures it is reasonable to assume that evaporation along dry spots perimeter is the predominant way
to feed a growing bubble. (A large mushroom shaped
bubble can be supplied with vapor from several dry
spots simultaneously.) As dry spot perimeter is proportional to a current bubble radius, the above assumption
means that total heat ux is proportional to the product
of linear heat ux density and the bubble diameter
Q / ql R.

Using en equation of energy balance and Eq. (6) one

can obtain the following bubble growth law:
R k 3  d0 r  t=m  qG  U1=2 .

10

Applying the departure condition it is possible to

obtain the bubble departure radius as
4=3 1=3

Rd /

d0 qL
m  qG  U

2=3

g  Dq

1=3

11

Using numerical factor k4 this expression can be

overwritten as follows:
Rd k 4 d0 r=m  qG  U
where Dq = qL
qG.

1=2 4=3

qL =g  Dq

1=3

12

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A. Franco et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 30 (2006) 263275

Bearing in mind that qdp  ql/Rd, using the Eqs. (3),

(6) and (12) and basing on the crisis condition (7), one
can obtain the following equation for CHF:
3=4

qcr 0:33hLG  qG r  g  Dq=qL

1=4

1 L=U

1=4

13

where the numerical factor (0.33) is chosen for best tting the present experimental data. The experimental
data obtained with stainless steel nets agree rather well
with the Eq. (13) except for the nets of the third line
(U = 0.48 L = 1.6) from Table 2, the maximum deviation is 12.7%. The above point is probably an accidental
surge, because the other very similar points demonstrate
rather good agreement with the calculations. The experimental points obtained with the nets of brass, copper
and aluminium (Table 3) deviate 1628.5% from the
calculated values.
The eect of thermal conductivity of wire nets material was not taken into account in the model and can be
explained only qualitatively. The higher thermal conductivity of wire leads to the higher rate of heat removal
from the contact points. As a result the nucleation sites
density decreases and the probable size of the dry spots
before crisis increases.
Eq. (13) appears to be surprisingly similar to the
well-known equation by Kutateladze for CHF in boiling on a smooth surface. In particular, it does not contain liquid viscosity, although in the intermediate
transformations the viscosity eect has been taken into
account. It is pertinent to mention that the expression
for CHF in boiling on a smooth surface at high reduced pressures obtained in [26] includes viscosity in
very low power. Certainly, Eq. (13) should be considered as the rst approximation, because only one liquid
and one pressure have been checked. It is necessary to
search other experimental results, which could be compared with the calculations. The model itself may be
improved, in order in particular to account for an eect
of a modulated porous structure, which allows separating vapor and liquid ows, as proposed in [17]. The
possibility of obtaining this eect by means of wire nets
is conrmed in the present paper.

5. Conclusions
The metallic wire mesh structures, considered as simple and cheap method to obtain porous coatings in pool
boiling, have been investigated both experimentally and
theoretically. The metallic wire nets coating provides a
lot of additional nucleation sites and additional capillary
pressure gradient for liquid inow into the region of an
intense evaporation in comparison to pool boiling on
clean surfaces. As a result
boiling commences at the wall superheats appreciably
lower than those on the smooth surface;

heat transfer coecients markedly increase, especially

at relatively low heat uxes;
critical heat ux exceeds in many cases the value corresponding to the smooth surface. Signicant CHF
increase (up to 40%) has been experimentally
obtained.
Eectiveness of mesh structure depends on wire material, net aperture, wire diameter and number of layers
disposed on the smooth surface. The optimal combinations of the above parameters were established in the
experiments (37 layers of nets with wire of 0.25
0.40 mm in diameter and mesh aperture of approximately 2 mm).
A possibility to separate vapor and liquid ows and
to increase CHF by means of a ner wire net placed
on the heated surface and larger wire nets on the upper
levels has been experimentally conrmed.
Using of the wire mesh structure leads to the slower
transition to steady lm boiling, which takes 810 min
in comparison to few seconds in boiling on a smooth
surface and on nned surfaces.
An approximate model for crisis in boiling on the
heated wall coated with metallic nets has been developed. The predicting equation is in a good agreement
with the experimental values of CHF obtained in the
present study.
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