Dropwise condensation on subcooled micropillar surfaces with 3D lattice Boltzmann method

In this investigation, an alternative geometric formula is proposed to address the force between fluid nodes and fluid ghost nodes, with the aid of which the contact angles can be varied in the range of 48.3°∼131.9°. This formula is applied to the three-dimensional double-distributed thermal lattice Boltzmann method being proved to be accurate and reliable by single droplet condensation. The effects brought by varying micropillar size on the kinetic properties of condensed droplets, including nucleation, growth, coalescence and jumping, are investigated in detail. The results show that the droplet wetting state tends to be the suspended Cassie state as the width and spacing of the micropillars are decreased, and the condensed droplets can merge and jump off the micropillar surface. In the meantime, the average droplet number increases, the average diameter and the diameter of dominant droplets decrease, thus reducing the condensate coverage. When the micropillar spacing is small, increasing the micropillar height results in the condensed droplet state being changed from Wenzel to Cassie state, and the percentage of small droplets also increases. Instead, when the micropillar spacing is large, by increasing micropillar height, droplets can nucleate in the middle of micropillars, and the percentage of large droplets is improved due to increased heat transfer area. In this study, the surface self-cleaning capability is strongest with the combination of dimensionless pillar height 0.4, spacing 0.1 and width 0.1, which reduces the condensate coverage by 66 % compared to its plain competitor.