Applied Thermal Engineering 155 (2019) 480–488

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Investigation on R141b convective condensation in microchannel with low T

surface energy coating and hierarchical nanostructures surface
⁎
Yong Dinga,b, Li Jiaa,b, , Yongxin Zhanga,b, Zhoujian Ana,b
a
Institute of Thermal Engineering, School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
b
Beijing Key Laboratory of Flow and Heat Transfer of Phase Changing in Micro and Small Scale, Beijing 100044, China

H I GH L IG H T S

• Increase of contact angle increases of heat transfer coefficient, but no effect on the pressure drop.
• Hierarchical nanostructures surface with a part original surface improves the heat transfer.
• The increment of roughness caused by nanostructures increased the heat transfer coefficient.

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: A facile chemical etching method for fabricating copper surface with hierarchical nanostructures and low surface
Microchannel energy coating was adopted in this study. Experimental investigation on the condensation heat transfer of re-
Convective condensation frigerant R141b in a rectangular microchannel with hydraulic diameter of 0.67 mm was conducted. The mass
Surface wettability flux was of the range from 70 kg/(m2 s) to 850 kg/(m2 s). The effects of surface wettability and wall sub-cooled
Low surface energy surface
on the flow and heat transfer characteristics were analyzed. For channels with same nanostructures, the increase
of contact angle resulted in the increase of heat transfer coefficient, but it had little effect on the pressure drop
during condensation. The experimental results showed that the channel with the contact angle of 21.6° had a
12.81% enhancement in the heat transfer coefficient compared to the original copper channel with the contact
angle of 12.8°. Moreover, a composite channel with gradient contact angle had a 16.67% enhancement in the
heat transfer coefficient compared to the original one. The hierarchical nanostructures had significant influences
on the heat transfer characteristics and pressure drop during convective condensation in microchannel. A higher
mass flux resulted in higher heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop, while a higher wall sub-cooled tem-
perature caused a lower heat transfer coefficient during the R141b condensation in a microchannel.

1. Introduction
With the rapid development of the electronic manufacturing in-
dustry, more and more microchannel heat exchangers have been ap-
plied to maintain device temperatures below limits set by both mate-
rials and device reliability. Two-phase mini/micro-channel heat
exchangers are highly compact and lightweight, require very small
coolant inventory, and provide very high heat transfer coefficients with
good surface temperature uniformity [1–3]. Kim and Mudawar [4] il-
lustrated that two-phase mini/micro-channel cooling devices have
gained unprecedented popularity in many modern technologies de-
manding the removal of highly concentrated heat loads from small
surface areas, such as water cooled turbine blades, computer data
centers, rocket nozzle cooling, cooling of hybrid vehicle power
electronics, and heat exchangers for hydrogen storage systems. Com-
paring to single-phase heat exchangers relying entirely on the coolant’s
sensible heat increment, two-phase heat exchangers focus on the
characteristics of combined sensible and latent heat of coolant to dis-
sipate far greater amounts of heat while maintaining relatively low
working temperatures. These heat exchangers can be implemented with
both flow boiling and condensation. Chen et al. [5] and Garimella [6]
have completely reviewed on the condensation in microchannel. It is
unanimous that the flow regimes and heat transfer coefficients for the
condensation in microchannel were very different from that in macro-
channel, because of the relative impact of surface tension, which is of
particular importance for the applications in vapor-liquid two-phase
flow in microchannel.
With the deepening of research on the microchannel flow

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ljia@bjtu.edu.cn (L. Jia).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.04.023
Received 28 January 2019; Received in revised form 11 March 2019; Accepted 5 April 2019
Available online 05 April 2019
1359-4311/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Y. Ding, et al.
Nomenclature
A heat transfer area of microchannel (m2)
cp,w specific heat at constant pressure of cooling water
(J·kg−1·K−1)
G mass flux (kg·m−2·s−1)
hfg latent heat of vaporization (J/kg)
HTC heat transfer coefficient (W·m−2·K−1)
ls slip length (m)
mw mass flow rate of cooling water (kg/s)
mr mass flow rate of refrigerant (kg/s)
condensation, many scholars have found that the species of working
medium, channel diameter, cross section shapes of micro channel and
wetting characteristics of surface have strong influences on the flow and
heat transfer characteristics during convective condensation [7–11].
Agarwal et al. [8] measured the heat transfer coefficients in non-cir-
cular horizontal microchannels (0.424 < Dh < 0.839 mm) with dif-
ferent shapes during the condensation of refrigerant R134a over the
mass flux range 150 < G < 750 kg/(m2 s). They found that the flow
and heat transfer characteristic had significant difference for different
channel shapes, and it was recommend that an annular-flow-based
model be used for the square, barrel-shaped and rectangular channels,
while the mist-flow correlation should be used for channels with sharp
corners. Del Col et al. [12] conducted R134a condensation heat transfer
coefficients measurements inside a single square cross section channel
(Dh = 1.18 mm) and compared them to a circular channel. They found
that the heat transfer was enhanced in the square channel at 200 kg/
(m2 s) due to the effect of surface tension, whereas this enhancement
was null at higher mass flux. Fang et al. [13] experimentally studied the
steam condensation in a silicon microchannel of 286 μm hydraulic
diameter with three different wall hydrophobicities. The local tem-
perature measurement was measured and the heat flux distribution in
the microchannel was reconstructed. They found the difference in flow
pattern and heat transfer mechanism for different hydrophobicity.
Their study highlighted the importance of the channel hydrophobicity
control for the optimization of the microchannel condenser.
Many researcher has studied the effects of surface wettability on
water single-phase flow and steam convective condensation, however,
the low surface tension substance like refrigerants were rarely studied
[14–16]. In Ref. [14] the hydrophilic microchannel consistently showed
a higher heat transfer coefficient than that of the hydrophobic micro-
channel although this increase was only about 8%. In Ref. [15] the heat
transfer coefficients of superhydrophobic tubes displayed a small de-
crease as compared to untreated tubes, depending on the tube diameter.
Recently, Del Col et al. [16] studied the steam convective condensation
on a superhydrophobic surface and the enhancement on the con-
densation heat transfer.
In nature, the best-known example of a super-hydrophobic surface is
the lotus leaf surface, displaying apparent contact angles (CAs) with
water greater than 150°. Numerous studies have suggested that the
combination of low surface energy coating and roughness on multiple
scales yields the self-cleaning surface, which is commonly referred to as
the ‘‘lotus effect’’. However, a superhydrophobic surface may not be
repellent to liquid with low surface tension, such as oil and refrigerants.
Therefore, designing surfaces for dewetting of liquids, such as water
and oil, is of both academic and practical interest. Zhu et al. [17] re-
ported a simple solution-immersion technique for the fabrication of a
superamphiphobic surface on the copper sheet. Hierarchical structure
composed of nanorod arrays and microflowers was formed on the
copper surface by an alkali assistant oxidation process. After fluorina-
tion, the surface became super-repellent toward water and several or-
ganic liquids with much lower surface tension than that of water, such
as hexadecane. In the initial step, the surface texture possessing
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Applied Thermal Engineering 155 (2019) 480–488
Q the condensation heat rate (W)
r ratio of actual surface area and apparent surface area (–)
Tout temperatures of cooling water at test section outlet (K)
Tin temperatures of cooling water at test section inlet (K)
Tsat saturation temperature of R141b vapor (K)
Twall temperature of microchannel wall (K)
Vs slip velocity (m/s)
x average vapor quality (–)
γ shear rate (s−1)
θ the Young angle (deg)
θ* apparent contact angle (deg)
hierarchical structure composed of microflowers and nanorod arrays
was fabricated on the copper surface by an immersion process. In the
second step, the surface was fluorinated by coating with per-
fluorooctanoic acid to obtain a superamphiphobic surface.
The wetting characteristics of the microchannel surface has a great
influence on the heat transfer of the two-phase flow. Some scholars
have conducted experimental researches on the boiling heat transfer
different wettability surfaces [18–20]. The difference in heat transfer
mechanism, flow pattern and the pressure drop between these surfaces
and smooth surface have been reported. The effects of surface micro-
nanostructure morphology and surface free energy on the formation of
vaporization core, bubble detachment behavior and liquid boundary
layer were studied [20]. For condensation heat transfer, compared to
the results that many scholars have studied the effect of super-
hydrophobic surface on the heat transfer mechanism in the case of
steam droplet condensation and flow condensation heat transfer, the
effects of surface contact angle on refrigerant condensation heat
transfer were rarely reported.
Due to the largest latent heat and moderate saturation temperature
with pressure ranging from 0.1 to 0.3 MPa, R141b is an appropriate
working fluid for electronic cooling with phase change. Dong et al. [21]
focused on the characteristics of R141b condensation heat transfer in
microchannels with hydraulic diameters below 200 μm. They designed
and fabricated a special test apparatus for the microchannel con-
densation with silicon wafers. A model considering the flow-pattern
fraction during the microchannel condensation was developed. Com-
parison between the model and measured results showed a reasonable
agreement.
Since the wettability of channel surface has a significant effect on
the convective condensation heat transfer, and the investigation on the
low surface energy fluid, such as R141b, was rarely reported. It is es-
sential to conduct the experimental and theoretical study on the effect
of surface wettability on convective condensation in microchannels to
supplement the experimental database. In this paper, refrigerant R141b
is used as the experimental working medium, and the microchannel
with different surface energy are fabricated to conduct experiments to
explore the influence of surface energy on the flow and heat transfer
characteristics of two-phase convective condensation.
2. Experiment system
2.1. Fabrication of surface with hierarchical nanostructures and low surface
energy coating
Materials: copper test section, sodium hydroxide (NaOH), Sodium
chlorite NaClO2, Trisodium Phosphate Na3PO4·12H2O, deionized (DI)
water, and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The test section was put in
an ultrasonic bath with acetone for 10 min to clean the organic che-
mical residue, and rinsed with isopropyl alcohol, ethanol and DI water
respectively. The test section was then dipped into 2.0 M hydrochloric
acid aqueous solution for 5 min to clear the nature oxide film on the
surface, then rinsed with deionized water, and dried within nitrogen
Y. Ding, et al.
gas. After that, a self-limiting chemical oxidation process in Ref. [22]
was adopted to create CuO nanostructures on copper surface. By im-
mersing the test section into alkaline solution composed of NaClO2,
NaOH, Na3PO4·12H2O, and DI water (3.75:5:10:100 wt%) at 95 °C, the
nanostructured CuO films were formed.
After CuO nanostructures formed, the test section was rinsed with
DI water, and drying under nitrogen gas. The as-prepared sample sur-
faces were then immersed into a 0.01M PFOA aqueous solution, and
drying under nitrogen gas. The change of time immersing sample into
the PFOA aqueous solution varied the wettability of surface.
The measurement of contact angle followed the method reported by
Vadgama and Harris [23]. Briefly, a contact angle measurement device
captured the photographs of liquid-surface contact. Once all the pho-
tographs were captured, they were analyzed using photo editing soft-
ware and CAD software (SolidEdge ST8). Using SolidEdge, the edges
were traced along the meniscus using a splined curve (polynomial of
order 3), and a tangent was drawn for each meniscus giving the contact
angle reading (Fig. 2). The maximum standard deviation of the ob-
tained values was 1.3°.
2.2. Experiment apparatus
The experimental system was composed of the refrigerant flow loop
and the cooling water loop, as shown in Fig. 1. A gear pump drove the
refrigerant R141b after the vapor completely condensing into liquid
phase. The refrigerant mass flow rate was adjusted through the re-
volution of gear pump, and measured by a Coriolis mass flowmeter
(0.15% uncertainty). The hot water offered by thermal bath heated the
refrigerant liquid to vapor through a plat heat exchanger. The vapor
state at outlet was controlled by adjusting the temperature and mass
flow rate of heating water, and measured by thermal and pressure
transducers. Then, the refrigerant vapor flowed into the test section,
which had a counter-flow water channel beneath the microchannel.
After that, the refrigerant completely condensed to liquid phase by the
cold water through a plat heat exchanger (condenser) which was set at
the downstream of the test section. An energy balance on the eva-
porator yielded the refrigerant quality at the test section inlet, while a
similar energy balance on the test section provided the refrigerant
quality at the test section outlet, and weighting method measured the
mass flow rates of cooling water in test section. Pressure transducers
with accuracy of 0.1% used to measure the refrigerant pressure, and the
temperatures data measured by the thermal transducer with accuracy
of 0.2 K.
2.3. Test section
Test section in this study has been tested in author’s previous re-
search [24,25]; and its reliability has been verified. Detailed informa-
tion has been described in the previous article [24], thus the test section
was briefly described in this article. It was composed of two parts, the
transparent PVC cover plate for visualization and a cooper block with a
6 mm diameter cooling passageway in the lower part and mini caves for
inserting thermocouples below the micro-channel. A 100 * 1 * 0.5 mm
rectangular micro channel was engraved on the upper surface of the
copper block to study the heat transfer characteristics and pressure drop
characteristics of the condensation process of refrigerant vapor. The
cooper block combined with the transparent cover by bolted joint, and
a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTEE) thin layer was set between them for
sealing.
A differential pressure sensor (with range from 0 to 40 kPa) was set
to measure the pressure drop. Cooling water flowed through the cooling
passageway in the copper block, and the inlet and outlet temperatures
were recorded to calculate condensation heat transfer. The temperature
difference of cooling water was not less than 3 K. Internal channel wall
temperature in the experimental section calculated from measured
temperature data according to the Fourier thermal conduction law.
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Applied Thermal Engineering 155 (2019) 480–488
2.4. Data reduction
The heat transfer rate in the test section was determined as,
Q = c p,w m w (Tout − Tin )
where cp,w is the specific heat at constant pressure of cooling water;
mw is the cooling water mass flow rate and Tout and Tin are temperatures
of cooling water at test section outlet and inlet.
The vapor was lightly superheat at the test section inlet by adjusting
the heating power of evaporator, and the vapor quality at the test
section inlet, xin, obtained by measuring the temperature and pressure
at the test section inlet. Δx was calculated as,
Q
Δx =
mr h fg
where mr was the refrigerant mass flow rate, and hfg was the latent
heat of R141b.
Vapor quality difference in the test section was small, 0.12–0.25 for
mass flux from 70 kg/(m2 s) to 850 kg/(m2 s). The average vapor
quality, x, at the test section inlet and outlet was obtained in the study,
Δx
x = x in −
2
The heat transfer coefficient was calculated as,
Q
HTC =
A (Tsat − Twall )
where Tsat and Twall is saturation temperature of R141b vapor and
temperature of microchannel wall respectively. All the thermocouples
and RTDs were calibrated before the experiments. The Coriolis-effect
mass flow meters were used for the refrigerant and the cooling water
mass flow rates. The uncertainty of the channel length is within ± 0.5
mm. The uncertainty for the experimental results were determined, and
the experimental uncertainties for the measured parameters were listed
in Table 1.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Wettability characteristics of fabricated microchannel surface
Followed the measurement method reported by Vadgama and
Harris [23], the contact angles of R141b on the sample surface were
measured. A stainless steel vessel with round glass windows was de-
signed, and a camera with microscope lens was set to capture the
images, as briefly illustrated in Fig. 2(a). Five times measurement for
both left and right side were averaged to final left and right values, and
values for left and right values were averaged to get final contact angle
value. As shown in Fig. 2, the typical image showed that the treated
Fig. 1. Scheme of experimental system.
Y. Ding, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 155 (2019) 480–488

Table 1
Uncertainty (accuracy) of parameters and apparatus.
Parameters/Apparatus. Uncertainty (%) Accuracy

Temperature transducer 0.2 K

Mass flow meter 0.15%
Pressure transducer 0.1%
Pressure difference 0.1%
Heat transfer coefficient 4.15–7.69

surface had a higher contact angle comparing to the original copper

surface. The data in Fig. 3 showed the contact angle of R141b on the
surface with nanostructures and low surface energy coating, the contact
angle varied with the immersion time in 0.01M PFOA aqueous solution,
and the limit contact angle was 21.6°. Also, the wettability of water on
the test surfaces was measured to contrast with R141b in Fig. 4. The
contact angle was 65.87° on the original surface and 136.56° on surface
with nanostructures and low surface energy coating (immersion time
8 min).
To verify the uniformity of the nanostructures on the surface, the Fig. 3. Contact angle varied with immersion time.
test sample (length is 100 mm, contact angle is 21.6°) was segmented
into two sections, and viewed under a SEM facility (America FEI,
Quanta FEG 450). The magnifying images (80,000 times) of three lo-
cations (location at 5 mm, 45 mm and 95 mm, respectively) along the
lengthwise direction were illustrated in Fig. 5, and the images showed
that the nanostructures were knife-like and similar along the lengthwise
direction of test sample. It demonstrated that the wettability was con-
Fig. 4. Contact angle of water on the sample surfaces. (a) The original cooper
stant along the microchannel.
surface, 65.87°; (b) The surface with nanostructures and low surface energy
In this study, a rectangular microchannel engraved on the test sec-
coating (immersion time 8 min), 136.56°.
tion with different wetting properties was fabricated by special
c10hemical oxidation process and coating process on the channel sur-
face. Channel A: the original copper microchannel channel (roughness nanostructures, the low surface energy coating process time was 8 min,
0.8 μm) without chemically treating, and its contact angle with R141b and the contact angle was 23.2°.
was 12.8°. Channel B: with nanostructures, the low surface energy
coating process time was 3 min, and the contact angle was 17.1°. 3.2. Effects of surface wettability on the heat transfer and pressure drop
Channel C: with nanostructures, the low surface energy coating process characteristics
time was 8 min, and the contact angle was 21.6°. Channel D: the
channel surface from inlet to 75 mm was the same as channel C, and For the liquids with low surface tension, such as R141b, the contact
75 mm-100 mm was the same with channel A. Channel E: without angle is small, showing hydrophilic characteristics on most solid sur-
faces. Such working materials are widely used in air conditioning

Fig. 2. Contact angle of R141b on sample surfaces. (a) Schematic diagram of contact angle measurement piece; (b) Original cooper surface; (c) Surface with
nanostructures and low surface energy coating (immersion time 8 min).

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Fig. 5. Nanostructures on the surface (contact angle 21.6°) along the lengthwise direction.

refrigeration cycle systems, and the study of their flow and heat transfer When the linear Navier boundary condition is applied to the Stokes
characteristics is of great significance for improving the efficiency of flow between two infinite parallel plates, the solution for the slip ve-
the system. However, for such low surface tension liquids, the me- locity Vs near the wall normalized by the centerline velocity Uc is,
chanism for making super-repellent surfaces is not yet clear, and re- −1
Vs D
search was rarely reported. In this study, a special chemical method was = ⎛1 + z ⎞
⎜ ⎟

used to create a certain micro-nanostructure on the copper surface and Uc ⎝ 4l s ⎠

reduce its surface energy, so that the contact angle of R141b on the where Dz is hydraulic diameter of channel. It is apparent that a lager
surface was increased from 12.8° to 21.6°. As shown in Fig. 6, the heat slip length and slip velocity results in lager velocity of bulk fluid. This
transfer coefficients in the microchannel with different contact angle phenomenon has been investigated in some studies [15,28]. They no-
surfaces increased with the increasing mass flux. It can be divided into ticed that the assumption of a slip velocity of the condensate layer at
three stages. When the mass flux was less than 400 kg/(m2 s), the slope the wall implied some heat transfer enhancement. An increase of slip
of the heat transfer coefficient with the mass flux was small. The slope length was associated with an augmentation of the slip velocity at the
of the heat transfer coefficient with the mass flux in the range of surface, resulting in a thinner condensate layer. Actually, the reduction
400–700 kg/(m2 s) becomes larger. In this stage, the heat transfer of the surface energy on the channel surface greatly reduced the ad-
coefficient increased rapidly with the increase of the mass flux. After hesion effect between the liquid and the solid surface, thereby making
the mass flux was higher than 700 kg/(m2 s), the condensation heat the liquid molecules more easily separated from the solid surface, and
transfer coefficient still showed an upward trend, but the slope de- reduced the liquid flow velocity gradient at the solid-liquid interface.
creased significantly. Therefore, the condensate liquid flow velocity on a lower surface en-
According to the experimental data shown in Fig. 6, it was apparent ergy surface was larger than that on a higher one. At the same time, the
that an increase of the contact angle would enhance the condensation increase of liquid flow velocity in meniscus region at rectangular cor-
heat transfer coefficient, but the enhanced performance was divergent ners enhanced the suction effect of the corner region, and drew more
in different mass flux regions. When the mass flux was less than 500 kg/ condensate into the corner region, thereby reducing the thickness of the
(m2 s), the heat transfer coefficient was higher on the surface with a condensate on the wall surface [25]. The thickness of the condensate
larger contact angle, but the increase of the contact angle did not film would decrease due to the increase in the liquid flow velocity, thus
greatly enhance the heat transfer coefficient. The difference in heat the thermal resistance of the condensate film decreased, which mean
transfer coefficient on the three different surfaces was not obvious in that the heat transfer from the gas phase to the condensing wall surface
this stage. However, when the mass flux was greater than 500 kg/ enhanced.
(m2 s), the increase in contact angle significantly enhanced the heat On the other hand, a texture of the micro-nanostructure on the
transfer coefficient. Comparing to channel A, Channel C had a 12.81% surface, also known as re-entrant structure, increased the roughness of
average enhancement of heat transfer coefficient. The enhancement of the channel surface, which caused the condensate liquid flow easier
heat transfer coefficient with increasing contact angle evidenced by
some research. El Mghari et al. [26] conducted numerical investigation
of steam condensation in a non-circular microchannel. Their research
showed that the condensation heat transfer coefficient increased by
increasing the contact angle, and besides, increasing contact angle from
6° to 15° lead to enhance the heat transfer up to 100%.
The fact of enhancement in heat transfer coefficient with increasing
contact angle could be explain considering the surface energy condi-
tion. On the one hand, the coating process formed a very thin fluoride
deposition molecular layer with very low surface energy. This mole-
cular layer reduced the surface energy of microchannel surface and
reduced the surface energy difference between the solid wall and liquid.
The reduction of the surface energy difference reduced the adhesion
effect between the condensate liquid and the microchannel wall sur-
face, which caused a small slip phenomenon at boundary layer. The slip
boundary condition was firstly proposed by Navier [27], and defined
the slip length ls as,

l s = Vs/ γ

where γ is the shear rate, which equals dVs/dz, and Vs is the slip Fig. 6. Heat transfer coefficient varied with mass flux for different channel
velocity. type.

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Y. Ding, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 155 (2019) 480–488

turn to turbulent flow. The increase in the liquid flow velocity and
turbulent state enhanced the convective heat transfer performance.
When the mass flux was smaller than 500 kg/(m2 s), the condensate
liquid flow velocity was relatively low, the liquid flow velocity increase
resulted from low surface energy was not significant, thus it was found
that the heat transfer coefficient of channel B and C were not sig-
nificantly higher than that of channel A. However, as the mass flux
increasing, the positive effect of the low surface energy on condensate
liquid velocity became more and more significant.
As shown in Fig. 7, the pressure drop in both channel A and channel
C increased with the increase of mass flux. The increase in mass flux
resulted in greater gas-liquid interface shear stress, and it led to greater
condensate liquid flow velocity and larger frictional drag. The experi-
mental results showed that the pressure drop of channel A was slightly
higher than that of channel C, except for the case of low mass flux
(G < 400 kg·m−2·s−1). In the case of low mass flux, the reduction of
pressure drop was obvious. When the inlet vapor mass flux was low, the
velocity of condensate liquid was relatively small, and the influence of
surface roughness on frictional drag was not dominant, so that the
Channel C presented smaller pressure drop because its low surface
energy caused smaller frictional drag.
dominant.
Fig. 9 showed that the pressure drop in the channel C and D in-
creased with the increasing mass flux, because the increase of mass flux
resulted in the increase of gas-liquid interfacial shear stress, which
caused the frictional pressure drop to increase as the mass flux in-
creases. Therefore, the total pressure drop increased with the increase
of mass flux. It showed that the trends of pressure drop changing were
the same for channel C and channel D, and there was no significant
difference in the pressure drop between them. When the mass flux was
greater than 650 kg/(m2 s), the pressure drop of channel D was slightly
higher than that of channel C. It was mainly effected by the adhesion
effect of the high surface energy surface at the outlet, which increased
the frictional drag when the mass flux was high. Therefore, when the
mass flux was less than 650 kg/(m2 s), the design of the channel D did
not affect the drag reduction effect of the low surface energy channel.
However, when the mass flux was greater than 650 kg/(m2 s), the effect
of increasing the frictional pressure drop on the high surface energy
surface of the outlet section began to appear.
3.4. Effect of nanostructures on heat transfer and pressure drop
characteristics

3.3. A designed composite channel with gradient contact angle

The effect of surface roughness on the wettability was first appre-
ciated by Wenzel [29], using a geometrical argument based on the
As shown in Fig. 8, the heat transfer coefficient of channel C and D
roughness factor, r, the ratio between the actual surface area and the
both were higher than channel A, which with high surface energy. This
apparent surface area of a rough surface. The relationship between the
was attributed to the reduction of the surface energy on the channel
apparent contact angle θ* and the Young angle θ (contact angle on ideal
surface, which reduced the liquid flow velocity gradient at the solid-
surface, given by Young-Laplace equation) was,
liquid interface. Therefore, the condensate liquid flow velocity in
channel C and D was larger than that in channel A, which enhanced the cosθ∗ = r cosθ
heat transfer performance. The heat transfer coefficients of channel D
The Wenzel relation predicts that, a hydrophilic solid (θ < 90°)
were higher than that of channel C when mass flux was less than
becomes more hydrophilic when the roughness is larger, and this ten-
400 kg/(m2 s), and the channel D had a 16.67% average enhancement
dency was generally observed [30]. The measured contact angle in this
of heat transfer coefficient compared to channel A.
study was consistent with the Wenzel relation. As shown in Table 2, the
Comparing with channel C, channel D was designed with 25 mm
contact angle of channel C (21.6°) was less than that of channel E
length original surface at the outlet of test section. This design resulted
(23.2°), because hierarchical nanostructures were formed on the surface
in a capillary force at the outlet to drive the condensate liquid flowing
of channel C by a chemical oxidation process, which increased the
to the outlet. During the condensation heat transfer in microchannel, as
roughness of channel C.
the vapor continuously condenses into a liquid, the quality of the vapor
As discussed in Section 3.3, the heat transfer coefficient increased
descends. The vapor flow rate decreases, and leads to the reduction of
with the increment of contact angle because of the decline of channel
gas-liquid interface shear stress. At the same time, the condensate liquid
surface energy. However, Fig. 10 showed that the heat transfer coeffi-
accumulates on the microchannel surface and the thickness of the
cients of channel E, which with a higher contact angle, were smaller
condensate liquid film increases, which causes the flow velocity of
than that of channel C. It was noticed that, the only difference between
condensate liquid decreases at the end of condensation. Therefore, at
channel C and channel E was the nanostructures existed on the channel
the outlet of the test section, the heat transfer coefficient is smaller than
that at the inlet of the condensation section. At the outlet of channel D,
a surface with a smaller contact angle was designed. Since the con-
densate was more easily wetted on this part of the surface, a force
component corresponding to the flow direction caused by the surface
tension, which accelerated the condensate liquid. Thus, it was showed
from the experimental results that the effect of surface tension could not
be neglected in the case of low mass flux (G < 400 kg·m−2·s−1), which
enhanced the condensate liquid flow velocity. Therefore, the design of
the D channel improved the condensation heat transfer coefficient.
However, in high mass flux region, the gas-liquid interface shear
stress was dominant comparing to the frictional drag and surface ten-
sion. The effect of accelerating the condensate liquid by the surface
wetting property at the outlet was covered by the acceleration effect
caused by the shear stress of the gas-liquid interface. The acceleration
caused by the capillary force was negligible compared with the accel-
eration caused by the gas-liquid interfacial shear stress. It can be seen
that when the mass flux was higher than 400 kg/(m2 s), the heat
transfer coefficients of the channel C and D were nearly consistent.
Although channel D designed with high surface energy surface for
25 mm length, the influence of this change could be ignored at high
mass flux because of the gas-liquid interfacial shear stress was Fig. 7. Pressure drop varied with mass flux for different microchannel type.

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Fig. 8. Comparison of heat transfer coefficient among channel A, channel C and Fig. 10. Comparison of heat transfer coefficient between channel C and channel
channel D. E.

3.5. Effect of wall sub-cooled on heat transfer characteristics

The wall sub-cooled temperature was the temperature difference

between the vapor saturation temperature and the channel surface
temperature. The experimental results were shown in Figs. 12 and 13.
For both channel A and D, the heat transfer coefficients decreased with
the increase of wall sub-cooled temperature. The heat transfer coeffi-
cient at sub-cooled temperature at 2.6 °C was significantly greater than
that at 5.6 °C. In the same cross section, higher sub-cooled temperature
results in more condensate liquid, and a greater liquid film thickness
under the same mass flux. That is, a higher wall subcooled temperature
will result in a larger heat transfer resistance. This was evidenced by
conclusion draw by Liao and Zhao [31]. They presented an analytical
model for predicting film condensation of vapor flowing inside a mi-
crochannel with uniform wall temperature. They found that a smaller
wall sub-cooled temperature yielded a larger thin film zone or a smaller
meniscus zone. As a result, the heat transfer coefficients for a smaller
wall sub-cooled temperature were higher than that for a larger wall sub-
cooled temperature. On the other hand, a higher wall sub-cooled tem-
Fig. 9. Comparison of pressure drop between channel C and channel D.
perature causes high vapor condensation rate, and the condensation
liquid film would be thicker. Therefore, a larger wall sub-cooled tem-
Table 2 perature resulted in a greater thermal resistance, and the heat transfer
Microchannel type. coefficient in microchannels decreased with the increase of wall sub-
Type Contact angle (°)

Channel A 12.8
Channel B 17.1
Channel C 21.6
Channel D 21.6/12.8 (composite surface)
Channel E 23.2

C rather than channel E. Therefore, surface roughness played an im-

portant role in the condensation heat transfer coefficient in the mi-
crochannels. When the mass flux was less than 500 kg/(m2 s), the heat
transfer coefficients in channel C were slightly higher than that in
channel E. However, the heat transfer coefficients enhanced apparently
in channel C when the mass flux was higher than 500 kg/(m2 s). That
was because the nanostructures on the surface of channel enhanced the
turbulence of the condensate flow and thus enhanced the heat transfer
of the condensation in microchannels. In addition, the nanostructures
played an important role in pressure drop of condensate flow. As shown
in Fig. 11, the pressure drops were higher in channel C because the
higher roughness resulted in higher friction drag.
Fig. 11. Comparison of pressure drop between channel C and channel E.

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Fig. 12. Effect of wall sub-cooled temperature on heat transfer coefficient of
channel A.
Fig. 13. Effect of wall sub-cooled temperature on heat transfer coefficient of
channel C.
cooled temperature.
4. Conclusions
The heat transfer characteristics were experimentally investigated
for the condensation of R141b inside a single rectangular microchannel
with hydraulic diameter 0.67 mm. Different surface wettability of mi-
crochannel was fabricated using a facile chemical etching method. The
effects of mass flux, surface wettability and wall sub-cooled tempera-
ture had been discussed. The following conclusions can be drawn from
this investigation.
1. The condensation heat transfer coefficient of R141b increased with
the increase of mass flux for different surface wettability micro-
channel, because the increasing gas-liquid interfacial shear stress
decreased the condensate film thickness. And the pressure drop in-
creased with the increase of mass flux because of the increasing wall
frictional drag.
2. The experimental results showed that the increase of contact angle
resulted in the increase of heat transfer coefficient, but had little
effect on the pressure drop during condensation. The channel with
contact angle of 21.6° had a 12.81% enhancement in heat transfer
coefficient compared to the original copper channel with contact
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Applied Thermal Engineering 155 (2019) 480–488
angle of 12.8°.
3. A designed hierarchical nanostructures surface channel with a
quarter-channel length original copper surface at outlet had a
16.67% enhancement for R141b in the heat transfer coefficient
compared to the original copper channel with contact angle of 12.8°,
which was attributed to the capillary force accelerating the con-
densate liquid when the mass flux was less than 400 kg/(m2 s).
4. The hierarchical nanostructures had significant influences on the
heat transfer characteristics and pressure drop during R141b con-
vective condensation in microchannels. The increment of roughness
caused by nanostructures increased the heat transfer coefficient in
high mass flux region due to the enhancement of condensate tur-
bulence, however, the increment of roughness caused higher pres-
sure drop.
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by National Key R&D Program of China
(2018YFB0604301) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the
Central Universities of China (2017YJS164).
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