An analysis of surface-microstructures effects on heterogeneous nucleation in pool boiling

The interaction of surface microstructures and wettability effects on heterogeneous nucleation in pool boiling is analyzed in this paper based on the changes of free energy and availability. It is shown that the bubble is most easily formed on a concave surface in comparison with a convex surface or a plane surface at the same wettability and the same wall temperature. It is found that the effect of microstructures greatly enhances nucleation of bubbles when the curvature radius of these microstructures is in the range of 5–100 times less than the bubble radius. Larger than this limit, the surface roughness effect is negligible and the wettability effect predominates. Closed form analytical solutions for the critical radius and change in availability are obtained for the special case of homogeneous nucleation where no wall temperature gradient exists on surfaces with microstructures. Under this simplified assumption, it is found that the microstructures have no effect on critical nucleation radius and their effect on the change in availability is underestimated.