Boiling heat transfer characteristics of distributed jet array impingement on metal foam covers with different wettability

Wettability may have significant influence on jet impingement boiling on metal foam, but the effect mechanism of metal foam wettability remains unclear. In this study, the boiling heat transfer characteristics of distributed jet array impingement on hydrophobic and hydrophilic metal foam covers were experimentally researched and compared with those on uncoated metal foam covers to analyze the influence of wettability. The experimental conditions cover contact angles of 14.0–158.7°, pore densities of 20–40 PPI, porosities of 92 %-97 %, thicknesses of 3.0–5.0 mm, and jet velocities of 0.5–4.0 m·s⁻¹. The results show that, the obtained maximum heat flux and maximum heat transfer coefficient are up to 538.1 W cm⁻² and 57.9 Kw m⁻² K⁻¹, respectively; the hydrophobic metal foam cover has a 4.8 K lower surface superheated degree at the onset of nucleate boiling, but a 7.5 % lower maximum heat transfer coefficient compared with the uncoated one; the hydrophilic metal foam cover shows a less deterioration after the departure from nucleate boiling but a 5.3 K higher surface superheated degree at the onset of nucleate boiling than those of the uncoated one. A new correlation for boiling heat transfer coefficients was developed with a mean relative error of 9.75 %.