Enhanced boiling heat transfer on micro-structured surfaces via ultrasonic actuation

Emerging issues in boiling heat transfer include enhancing heat transfer uniformity/stability, and critical heat flux (CHF). Microcavity structures improve heat transfer uniformity/stability by departing bubbles with arranged formation due to pinning effects and regular pitch. Ultrasonic actuation induces an acoustic field on departed bubbles, and this enhances contact line instability between the bubble and microcavity structures, resulting in an increased dissipation rate of smaller bubbles. In this study, we demonstrate that synergetic effects from microcavity structures and ultrasonic actuation can enhance CHF and thermal stability while also improving temporal/spatial temperature uniformity. Applying microcavity structures with ultrasonic actuation, we observe smaller and faster bubbles' departure with the proposed formation. These bubble departure characteristics on the microcavity surface with ultrasonic actuation enhance CHF and thermal stability by delaying bubble coalescence and ensuring liquid paths between smaller and faster-departed bubbles. Thus, when ultrasonic actuation is applied to the microcavity structure, CHF increased by 20%, and temporal/spatial temperature variations near CHF were reduced to less than 1/2 and 1/3, respectively, compared to no actuation case. This research will help to understand the interaction of ultrasonic wave and bubbles, and to show the way to overcome CHF limitations of passive methods using microsized structures.