Experimental investigation of pool boiling on Ti-Cu composite coated surfaces prepared using Electric Discharge Coating

Boiling heat transfer has become a very potent two-phase heat transfer mechanism for cooling high heat-producing devices such as microelectronic devices, fusion reactors or turbine blades. Increasing research has shown that micro/nano-structures on surfaces increase the number of nucleation sites for bubble formation, which ultimately results in a major improvement in boiling performance. This led to studies on developing various coated surfaces in order to generate micro/nano-structures on surfaces. In the current study, microstructured boiling surfaces were prepared using the Electric Discharge Coating (EDC) process. Titanium-copper (Ti-Cu) composite microparticles were coated on copper surface under reverse polarity in the Electric Discharge Machine. Four surfaces were prepared by using current settings of 3 A, 4 A, 5 A and 6 A. It was followed by characterisation of the surfaces which included, wettability analysis, porosity, pore size estimation, mean roughness measurement and elemental analysis, in order to better understand the boiling results on the surfaces. The surfaces formed were hydrophilic in nature, with contact angles varying from 47° to 65°. Pool boiling were performed with the developed surfaces and critical heat flux (CHF) and nucleate boiling heat transfer coefficient (NBHTC) improvement of 37.17 % and 172 % respectively were observed with the best performing surface compared to the bare surface. The best performing surface was also compared with relevant published literature to determine its standing against the present state of the art.