On heat and mass transfer using evaporating self-rewetting mixtures in microchannels

K. Sefiane*, X. Yu, Gail Duursma, J. Xu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Evaporation heat and mass transfer in open microchannels was investigated using pure liquids (ethanol, deionized water and butanol), an ordinary (non-self-rewetting) mixture (5% v/v ethanol/water mixture) and a self-rewetting fluid (5% v/v butanol/water mixture). The applied heating power ranged from 0 mW to 282.76 mW (giving heat fluxes from 0 W/m2 to 4501 W/m2) with wall temperatures ranging from 24 °C to 95 °C. When the microchannel had no external heating, diffusion was found to be the main mechanism of mass transfer. With external heating, the diffusion model underestimated the experiment results, and buoyancy-driven convection may account for this. Evaporation rates remain high for the self-rewetting fluid even when the meniscus recedes significantly (by 6 times the inner diameter) in the microchannel under heating conditions. Additionally, the self-rewetting fluid showed the highest conduction rate in the axial direction in high heating power conditions. Meniscus-wall contact angles and flow visualizations were obtained for various heating rates. The “contact angle shift” phenomenon of the self-rewetting fluid was observed. Marangoni-induced convection in the microchannel accounts for the mechanism of better heat and mass transfer as well as the “contact angle shift” phenomenon for the self-rewetting fluid.
Original languageEnglish
Article number115662
Number of pages11
JournalApplied Thermal Engineering
Volume179
Early online date27 Jun 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Oct 2020

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Evaporation heat transfer; diffusion model; contact angle; self-rewetting fluid; microchannel

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