Investigation of pool boiling performance on a surface with copper nanowire arrays using molecular dynamics

Abstract

The heat flux increases due to the miniaturization and integration of semiconductor components. Overheating issues necessitate reliable cooling solutions. Pool boiling effectively meets the cooling requirements of semiconductor devices due to its superior heat transfer efficiency. This study investigates the heat transfer of pool boiling on textured substrates featuring nanowire arrays of varying heights. Nanowire arrays are arranged on the bottom wall in three rows and three columns. Liquid argon serves as the working fluid. The height of nanowire arrays is 10 nm, 20 nm, and 30 nm. Nanowire arrays possess the same interval of 10 nm and a diameter of 5 nm. The dynamics behaviors are analyzed on four surfaces. The results show that nanowire arrays remarkably inhibit the transition from nucleate boiling state to film boiling state. Compared to the plain substrate, textured substrate exhibits a maximum temperature increase of 33.7 K during the boiling process. The energy obtained by argon and the number of vapor argon atoms simultaneously increases with the increase of nanowire height. The enhancement heat transfer mechanisms are elucidated through simulation results. Liquid surrounding nanowire arrays absorbs additional thermal energy from sidewalls, resulting in heat accumulation and enhancement of heat transfer. The nanowire arrays with a height of 30 nm demonstrate the highest heat transfer enhancement. Compared with the plain substrate, nanowire arrays achieve a striking heat flux increase, reaching 7168.1 MW/m². This study investigates the nanoscale enhancement mechanism of pool boiling, offering guidance for improved cooling performance of electronic devices.