International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122155

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/hmt

Enhancement of pool boiling heat transfer using 3D-printed groove

structure
Houli Liu, Jian Wang, Zhonghao Gu, Xiaoming Fei, Li Zhang∗
State-Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai
200237, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Groove structures were fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM) technique to enhance saturated boil-
Received 7 September 2021 ing heat transfer at atmospheric pressure. Prepared groove structures have different groove lengths and
Revised 12 October 2021
heights, and the printing material used is AlSi10Mg. Pool boiling experiments were explored with deion-
Accepted 20 October 2021
ized water as the working fluid, and the heat transfer performance of different groove structures was
Available online 14 November 2021
compared based on smooth surface. It was found that the groove structure can significantly increase the
Keywords: boiling heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and critical heat flux (CHF) compared with the smooth surface.
Pool boiling With the increase of groove length, the CHF of the groove structure gradually increases until it reaches
Heat transfer the maximum at the groove length of 2.2 mm, which corresponded to the bubble departure diameter.
3D-printed Maximum CHF and HTC improvements were 3.1 times and 2 times, respectively. The HTC and CHF of
Groove structure groove structure decrease with the increase of groove height, which is due to the increase of liquid and
vapor flow resistance in the groove. Difference of HTC of samples with the same structure size and dif-
ferent height declines with the increase of groove length. Groove structure facilitates gas-liquid flow and
separation, thereby enhancing boiling heat transfer. The semi-melted powder bonding on the surface of
the 3D-printed skeleton and the groove structure work together to improve the boiling heat transfer per-
formance.
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction surface modification, such as microstructure [6,7], porous coating

Boiling is considered to be an effective heat transfer method be-
cause of its large evaporation latent heat, which can achieve bet-
ter heat transfer characteristics at relatively small temperature dif-
ference. Therefore, boiling heat transfer has a wide range of ap-
plications in aerospace, electronic equipment, nuclear power, data
center, and other equipment heat dissipation [1–3]. Active explo-
ration of this area is necessary to meet the heat dissipation of the
decreasing size and increasing performance of heat sink compo-
nents. The main research direction of boiling heat transfer is to
improve the limited heat transfer capacity, that is, the critical heat
flux (CHF) and the poor heat transfer coefficient (HTC) due to pre-
mature surface drying. The enhancement of CHF and HTC plays a
critical role in improving the efficiency, cost, and safety of energy
and heat conversion systems, while reducing global energy con-
sumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Subsequently, various methods to enhance boiling heat trans-
fer have been developed [4,5]. These methods mainly focus on
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: lzhang@ecust.edu.cn (L. Zhang).
[8,9], changing wettability [10,11], and other methods [12–14]. Re-
searchers have shown intense interest in microstructure surfaces
in recent years because they can significantly enhance boiling heat
transfer. Passive cooling technologies such as fins, channels, and
grooves are widely used to improve boiling performance due to
their compatibility and cooling potential for miniaturized devices.
Kaniowski and Pastuszko [15] prepared a channels structure with
different depths and widths on copper surface by machining and
achieved a maximum CHF enhancement of 2.5 times compared
with smooth surface. Chen and Li [7] fabricated the Two-tier struc-
ture of copper nanowires and microgroove structure on copper
substrates. It was found that the height of the nanowires and the
pitch size of the microgrooves have a significant effect on the boil-
ing heat transfer, and the maximum CHF increase reached 119.3%.
Gheitaghy et al. [16] fabricated inclined channel structure by ma-
chining method to study the effect of different structural param-
eters on boiling heat transfer. The results show that channel in-
clination, channel depth increase, and pitch decrease can enhance
heat transfer. Deng et al. [17] developed an -shaped porous reen-
trant cavity structure using a sintering method. They found that
the porous reentrant cavity increased the heat transfer area, nu-

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2021.122155
0017-9310/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
H. Liu, J. Wang, Z. Gu et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122155

ever, previous research has focused on the development of groove

Nomenclature structures using machining processes such as milling, MEMS, sin-
tering, and EDM, which involve multiple manufacturing steps and
A surface area therefore increase manufacturing costs. Therefore, seeking a simple
Aw area of heater surface and controllable fabrication method for the groove structure is of
Bo Bond number great significance for exploring the mechanism of enhanced boiling
Cpl liquid specific heat at constant pressure heat transfer with different characteristic parameters.
Db bubble diameter Selective laser melting (SLM) is one of the emerging 3D-printed
d pore diameter technologies. Compared with the traditional processing method,
g gravitational acceleration SLM technique can easily produce any complex geometry struc-
h heat transfer coefficient ture without additional mold manufacturing conditions. In addi-
hfg latent heat capacity tion, a microporous layer formed by semi-melted metal powder is
Hp channel height bonded on the surface of the skeleton during the manufacturing
I current process, and the existence of the microporous layer will enhance
Ja∗ modified Jakob number the heat transfer. Due to the advantages of controllable prepara-
K permeability tion in complex porous structures, SLM technique has broad ap-
n pore quantity plication prospects in heat transfer enhancement [23]. In recent
P pressure drop years, researchers have carried out the application of SLM manu-
Qmax maximum heat flux facturing technology in heat transfer enhancement, such as adding
q heat flux fins [24,25], surface modification [26,27], manufacturing porous
Tast saturated temperature of the working fluid structure [28,29]. Furthermore, SLM manufacturing technique has
U voltage been developed to enhance boiling heat transfer. Wong and Leong
[30] used SLM technology to prepare lattice porous structures of
Greek symbols
different sizes, using FC-72 as the working fluid for pool boiling
σ surface tension force
under atmospheric pressure. It is found that the lattice porous
ρ density
structure can increase HTC by 2.81 times compared with the
θ contact angle
smooth plain. Pi et al. [31] used SLM technique to fabricate reen-
μ viscosity
trant microchannels structures (RMS) for the study of pool boil-
Subscripts ing experiments under saturated and subcooled boiling conditions.
b bubble They found that the RMS can significantly increase the nucleation
l liquid sites and thus reduce the onset of nucleate boiling, and the sub-
sat saturation cooled boiling experiments are more effective than the saturated
v vapor boiling enhancement. In our previous study [32,33], different sizes
w wall of porous structures were manufactured using SLM technique. Pool
boiling experimental results show that the porous structure dra-
matically enhances the boiling heat transfer due to the gas-liquid
separation and restriction.
cleation sites, and liquid replenishment, and the maximum HTC in In this study, groove structure with different groove lengths and
water increased by 3 times. heights was fabricated by SLM technique. It is utilized to investi-
In addition to fabricating groove structures directly by machin- gate the effect of different groove structure parameters on boiling
ing or sintering, other methods have also been tried to fabricate heat transfer. Combined with the visualization, the liquid and va-
groove structures to enhance boiling heat transfer. Rahman et al. por flow within the groove structure and the CHF limiting factors
[18] reported a method to enhance boiling heat transfer by em- were further analyzed.
bedding low thermal conductivity materials into grooves on heated
copper surfaces to form bi-conductive surfaces. The study found
that different nucleation positions on bi-conductive surfaces can
promote the formation of liquid and vapor flow paths, and thus 2. Materials and methods
obtain up to 5 times the HTC improvement and 2 times the CHF
improvement compared to smooth surface. Kibushi et al. [19] eval- 2.1. Selective laser melting process
uated the boiling heat transfer performance of combined lotus cop-
per and groove surfaces of different sizes in water and FC-72. They In this paper, HBD 100 (Shanghai Hanbang Technology Co., Ltd.)
confirmed that there was an optimal groove size in the water boil- was to produce groove structure, its maximum laser power is
ing experiment, and the maximum CHF reached 534 W/cm2 at the 200 W. AlSi10Mg powder used for sample fabrication is superior
wall superheat of 111 K. Park et al. [20] prepared a hierarchical to its higher thermal conductivity [30,34], and its particle size dis-
structure by electricspraying and chemical bath deposition to en- tribution ranges from 15 to 53 μm. During the fabrication process,
hance boiling heat transfer. A width of 3 mm was found to achieve argon gas was used to flush the printing chamber to maintain the
optimal heat transfer performance, mainly due to the increase in oxygen content below 0.2% to prevent oxidation.
nucleation sites brought about by the nanowire structure and the Before printing, CAD model was imported into magics software
good wettability caused by hierarchical structure. for slicing. Spreading the metal powder to the aluminum alloy
As discussed earlier, groove structure promotes the separation substrate with the set layer thickness. Then the laser scans layer
of bubble nucleation sites and liquid supply regions, and the inter- by layer according to the printing path until the whole groove
action between vapor-liquid interfaces enhances the wettability of structure is completed. The schematic diagram of the SLM additive
the surface and further enhances the boiling heat transfer. The pa- manufacturing process is illustrated in Fig. 1. After printing, the
rameters such as groove depth and width of the groove structure sample is cut from the substrate by EDM. The sample was cleaned
are crucial to the gas-liquid flow path and microconvection heat by ultrasonic to remove the loose metal powder on the surface for
transfer to determine its heat transfer performance [21,22]. How- the experiment.

2
H. Liu, J. Wang, Z. Gu et al.
Table 1
3D-printed groove structure parameters.
Test sample Height /mm Wall thickness/mm
S-1.5-thin 1.5
S-1.8-thin
S-2.2-thin
S-2.8-thin
S-1.5-thick 3.0
S-1.8-thick
S-2.2-thick
S-2.8-thick
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of SLM method.
2.2. Description of substrates and surface morphology analysis
In present study, groove structures with different lengths and
heights are designed to study its effect on boiling heat transfer. The
groove structure configuration used in the present study is shown
in Fig. 2. The size of the sample is 12 mm × 12 mm, and the height
is 1.5 mm and 3.0 mm respectively. The wall thickness of the 3D-
printed single groove structure is 0.2 mm, and the length of the
groove (1.5 mm, 1.8 mm, 2.2 mm, 2.8 mm) is changed to determine
the optimal enhanced boiling heat transfer structure. In addition to
the change in groove length, samples with a fixed groove width of
0.5 mm can obtain better heat transfer performance [32,35]. The
specific design parameters are given in Table 1. The abbreviation
of substrate naming is defined for easy reference in the subsequent
contents of this paper. Sample naming in combination with length
of grooves and thickness. Samples with heights of 1.5 mm and
3.0 mm are named "thin’’ and "thick’’ respectively. For example,
a sample with a groove length and a height of 1.5 mm was named
as "S-1.5-thin’’. The image of the 3D-printed sample is shown in
Fig. 3.
SEM images of the groove structure after ultrasonic cleaning
are shown in Fig. 4. The laser scans the central area to form the
skeleton of the groove structure, and the edge of the skeleton is
bonded with semi-melted metal powder. Bonded metal powder on
the surface of the skeleton is a typical structure of SLM manufac-
turing technique. The semi-melted powder bonded on the skeleton
structure is still firmly bonded after ultrasonic cleaning, and will
not fall in the heat transfer experiment. Microporous layer formed
by the semi-melted metal powder is beneficial to increase the ini-
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122155
Width /mm Length /mm Porosity /% Surface area/mm2
0.2 0.5 1.5 60.7 892.2
1.8 61.8 873.8
2.2 63.0 855.4
2.8 64.2 837.0
1.5 60.7 1671.0
1.8 61.8 1637.7
2.2 63.0 1351.7
2.8 64.2 1570.8
tial nucleation and enhance heat transfer. Under the same printing
parameters, the surfaces of the different samples have good con-
sistency.
To characterize the wettability of the surface, 5 μL of deion-
ized water was used to measure the static contact angle at room
temperature. Video capture and contact angle analysis are per-
formed by goniometer (Kruss, DSA30). The static contact angle of
the smooth surface was 38.8°, respectively. The contact angle is il-
lustrated in Fig. 5.
2.3. Pool boiling experimental apparatus and experimental procedure
The test facility used in the present investigation was similar
to those described in reference [32]. The schematic diagram of the
experimental apparatus is illustrated in Fig. 6. The boiling cham-
ber made of polycarbonate (15 cm × 15 cm × 20 cm) is used for
visualization of the boiling process. An auxiliary heater is installed
in the vessel to boil deionized water and maintain the tempera-
ture saturation temperature. There is a condenser on the top of the
vessel to condense the vapor into liquid. A T-type thermocouple is
installed near the test sample to detect changes in water tempera-
ture.
A 12 × 12 × 2.5 mm ceramic heater (ULTRAMIC® WALN-6,
from Watlow®) is used as a boiling surface. The ceramic heater
is made of aluminum nitride with surface roughness less than
1.5 μm. A K-type thermocouple is installed inside the ceramic
heater, and the boiling surface temperature can be calculated by
one-dimensional heat conduction equation. The ceramic heater is
installed in the polytetrafluoroethylene substrate and sealed with
silicone rubber. The PTFE base is thick enough (25 mm) to mini-
mize heat loss. Two crossed stainless steel wires were used to fix
the sample on the ceramic heater. Tension should be checked be-
fore and after the experiment to ensure accuracy of the experi-
ment.
The working fluid is heated to a boiling state for more than
30 min to remove dissolved air. In each step, the heat flux in-
creases gradually at a rate of about 0.1 MW/m2 until the boil-
ing surface temperature shows a rapid rise. When the temperature
fluctuation is less than 0.2 K within 1 min, it is considered to reach
the stable state. All temperature data were recorded by a National
Instrument cDAQ instrument. Input power for ceramic heaters is
provided by Agilent N5769A. The high-speed visualization in the
process of experiment is recorded at 30 0 0 frames per second with
an IDT MotionXtra N4 camera.
2.4. Calculations and uncertainty analysis
The heat flux (q) is generated from the ceramic heater and the
value can be calculated by Eq. (1):
U ×I
q= (1)
A
where U and I are voltage and current, respectively, A is surface
area.
3
H. Liu, J. Wang, Z. Gu et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122155

Fig. 2. Groove geometrical parameters.

Fig. 3. Photographs of samples with groove structure.

Fig. 4. SEM image of the sample (a) 50 X; (b) 100 X.

Heat transfer coefficient h was calculated by Eq. (2): ture uncertainty is 0.5 K. Then, the uncertainty of heat flux and
q heat transfer coefficient is calculated as follows:
h= (2)  2  2  2
Twall − Tsat ∂q ∂q ∂q
(q ) =2
(U ) + 2
(I ) +
2
(A )2 (3)
where Twall is boiling surface temperature and Tsat is the saturation ∂U ∂I ∂A
temperature at 1 atm.
The uncertainty analysis was performed by using the Kline and
 2  2  2
McClintock [36] method. In the present study, the measurement q U I A
= + + (4)
uncertainties for U, and I, are 0.012%, 0.2%, respectively. Tempera- q U I A

4
H. Liu, J. Wang, Z. Gu et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122155

3. Results and discussion

3.1. The pool boiling performance of the groove structure

3.1.1. Effect of unit groove length

Fig. 7(a) shows the nucleate boiling curves of samples with dif-
ferent groove lengths at the same height of 1.5 mm. The CHF value
of the smooth surface in this study is 99 W/cm2 , which is close to
the result of Anmzan [37] and proves the accuracy of the current
measurement. The heat transfer performance of all groove struc-
tures is better than that of smooth surface. In the low heat flux
level, the heat flux curves of the four groups of samples overlap
each other, indicating that the heat transfer performance of the
samples is similar. With the increase of heat flux, the restriction
effect of different lengths of channel structure on gas-liquid flow
becomes prominent, which affects the heat transfer performance.
Samples with larger groove sizes have less bubble escape resis-
tance at high heat flux. Therefore, samples "S-2.2-thin’’ and "S-2.8-
thin’’ have a higher CHF compared to samples "S-1.5-thin’’ and "S-
Fig. 5. Plain surface contact angle measurement with deionized water. 1.8-thin’’ with smaller groove sizes. Fig. 7(b) shows the heat trans-
fer coefficient curves of different samples. It can be seen that when
the heat flux is greater than 150 W/cm2 , the HTC of the small
groove length sample is lower than that of the big groove length
sample. The main reason is that under the condition of high heat
 2  2 flux, the formation and coalescence of bubbles are more rapid, and
∂h ∂h
(h ) =2
(q ) + 2
(Twall )2 the longer groove is more convenient for the escape of bubbles.
∂q ∂ Twall Thereby increasing the liquid replenishment of the heat transfer
 2 surface, and ultimately obtain a better HTC.
∂h
+ (Tsat )2 (5) Fig. 8(a) shows the saturation boiling curves of samples with
∂ Tsat
different groove lengths of 3.0 mm height. Unlike the sample with
a height of 1.5 mm, the difference in nucleate boiling heat trans-
 fer performance of samples with different groove lengths showed
2  2  2 more obvious for the thick samples. Fig. 8(b) shows the variation
h q Tsat Twall
= + + (6) of heat transfer coefficient of the sample with a height of 3.0 mm.
h q Twall − Tsat Twall − Tsat It can be seen that the heat transfer performance of the sam-
ple with a shorter groove length become worse. The reason may
be that as the height increases, the flow path of bubbles in the
The uncertainty of heat flux is less than 2.4%. The uncertainty
groove increases significantly. When the groove height is constant,
of heat transfer coefficient is 10.5% at heat flux 4 W/cm2 and 4% at
the shorter the groove length, the greater the bubble escape resis-
CHF, respectively.

Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of the experimental apparatus.

5
H. Liu, J. Wang, Z. Gu et al.
Fig. 7. Comparison of samples with 1.5 mm thickness (a) Nucleate boiling curves; (b) Heat transfer coefficient curves.
Fig. 8. Comparison of 3.0 mm thick samples (a) Nucleate boiling curves; (b) Heat transfer coefficient curves.
tance. Therefore, the heat transfer coefficient of the "S-1.5-thick’’
sample is the worst. At the same height, "S-2.2-thin’’ obtained the
best heat transfer performance, indicating that the current struc-
ture is conducive to the escape of bubbles. The current groove
structure improves the liquid-vapor separation and the limiting ef-
fect on bubbles, thus enhancing the boiling heat transfer perfor-
mance.
3.1.2. Effect of groove height
Fig. 9 shows the comparison of nucleate boiling curves of four
groups of samples with different heights. It can be seen that the
heat transfer performance of all the samples decreases with the in-
crease of the height while keeping the groove structure unchanged.
That is, the heat transfer performance of the sample with a height
of 3.0 mm is lower than that of the sample with a height of
1.5 mm. The CHF of all samples with a height of 1.5 mm is greater
than that of 3.0 mm samples with the same structural size. In ad-
dition, comparing the heat flux curves in Fig. 9(a), (b), (c), and (d),
it can be found that as the length of the groove increases, the dis-
parity in the heat transfer performance of samples with different
heights gradually decreases. Increasing the height and reducing the
length of the groove will deteriorate the heat transfer performance
of the sample. Keeping the groove structure unchanged, increas-
ing the height will improve the resistance of liquid and vapor flow
in the groove. While maintaining a certain height, the smaller the
groove length, the greater the corresponding liquid and vapor flow
resistance. Therefore, the difference in HTC increases with decreas-
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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122155
ing groove length for specimens with a height of 3.0 mm compared
to 1.5 mm specimens.
The groove geometry has important influence on bubble dy-
namics and gas-liquid separation during boiling. To facilitate com-
parison of the effect of different structural characteristics of the
groove structure on the bubble movement. Fig. 10 shows a com-
parison of the high-speed images of the boiling phenomena on
smooth surface and the 3D-printed groove structures. From Fig. 10,
it can be seen that under the same heat flux, the small bubbles
on the smooth surface quickly form coalescence bubbles, while the
bubbles in the groove structure have smaller coalescence size and
faster escape frequency. The groove structure effectively improves
the liquid-vapor flow and separation on the heating surface, so the
heat transfer performance of the groove structure is better than
that of the smooth surface. However, under the condition of the
same groove size, the bubble escape groove length of the sample
with the height of 3.0 mm increases the resistance, so the bubble
escape frequency of 3.0 mm sample is lower than that of 1.5 mm
sample. Therefore, the heat transfer performance of 3.0 mm height
sample is lower than that of 1.5 mm height sample.
3.1.3. Comparison with results from the literature
To evaluate the boiling heat transfer performance of the de-
veloped groove structure, Fig. 11 shows a comparison of other
3D-printed structures or microgroove structures in the literature.
All experiments in the literature are carried out under saturated
atmospheric pressure, and the working fluid is deionized water.
Compared with other research results in the literature, the groove
H. Liu, J. Wang, Z. Gu et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122155

Fig. 9. Comparison of samples with different thickness (a) 1.5 mm groove length; (b) 1.8 mm groove length; (c) 2.2 mm groove length; (d) 2.8 mm groove length.

structure in this paper achieved better HTC and CHF enhancement. is mainly due to the combination of semi-melted powder on the
The HTC and CHF of the groove structure are higher than Mori skeleton surface and groove structure of SLM technique to improve
and Okuyama [38], Elkholy and Kempers [39], Pi et.al. [31], and the heat transfer performance.
our previous study [32], second only to the results of Jaikunar and
Kandlikar [40].
3.2. CHF enhancement mechanism
The CHF value in this study is close to the sintered Cu mi-
crochannel structure of Jaikunar and Kandlikar [40], but HTC is
3.2.1. Comparison of groove size and bubble departure diameter
smaller than their research results. This is mainly because the Cu
The groove structure can significantly improve CHF, and the
porous layer sintered on the surface of the microchannel struc-
main mechanisms of groove structure enhancing CHF can be di-
ture increases the nucleation site and the heat transfer area, which
vided into bubble departure diameter, resistance restriction, and
proves that the existence of the microporous layer plays an impor-
altered critical wavelength.
tant role in improving HTC. Thanks to the good thermal conduc-
From the high-speed images of the groove structure in Fig. 10,
tivity of AlSi10Mg powder and the bonding of semi-melted metal
it is clear that bubbles are generated at the heating surface and
powder on the surface, the current study obtained a better HTC en-
grow, coalescence, and detach from the groove. Schematic diagram
hancement compared to our previous study of grid structure [32].
of bubble motion under different heat flux conditions is shown in
Elkholy and Kempers [39] developed 3D-printed polymer fixtures
Fig. 12. In the low heat flux level, the bubbles generated by the
and Mori and Okuyama [38] honeycomb porous plates are all non-
heating surface are small and can escape directly from the inside
metallic materials, so the wall superheat in their research results
of the groove, as shown in Fig. 12(a). As the heat flux increases, the
is relatively large compared with the groove structure. It should
generated bubbles gradually increase, and larger bubbles occupy
be noted that although Mori’s research results have greater wall
the entire groove and coalesce with bubbles generated by other
superheat than that of Elkholy, it has obtained higher CHF im-
grooves, as shown in Fig. 12(b) and (c). Until the whole groove
provement due to better structural size (smaller square pore size
structure is covered by vapor film, CHF is achieved, as shown in
and sample height). The heat transfer experiment of reentrant mi-
Fig. 12(d).
crochannels structures prepared by Pi et.al. using SLM technique,
To compare the effects of different groove lengths of CHF,
their experiment did not reach CHF due to excessive wall super-
Fig. 13 shows the CHF fitting curves of two groups of samples
heat [31]. Vapor covered on top of reentrant microchannels, which
with different groove lengths. The maximum CHF value obtained
limits the vertical liquid replenishment and deteriorates the heat
in the current experiment is 312.5 W/cm2 (S-2.2-thin), which is
transfer under high heat flux conditions. Current groove struc-
more than 3 times that of the smooth surface. With the increase
ture achieves 3.1 times CHF and 2 times HTC enhancement. This
of groove length, the CHF value of each sample increased accord-

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H. Liu, J. Wang, Z. Gu et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122155

Fig. 10. High-speed image of boiling process.

ingly. When the length of groove reaches 2.2 mm, the CHF of the The influence of sensible and latent heat is incorporated in this
sample reaches the maximum. However, with further increase of correlation through the use of the modified Jakob number defined
the length of groove, CHF of the sample begins to decrease. This is as
mainly because the current structure is more conducive to bubble
ρl Cpl Tsat
escape and liquid-vapor separation. Therefore, the groove structure J a∗ = (9)
plays an important role in the gas-liquid flow and separation. ρv h f g
The interaction between surface tension and buoyancy of
where C pl is the heat capacity of the liquid and h f g is the latent
heated surface bubbles is expressed by dimensionless bond num-
heat.
ber, The Bo number is given by Eq. (7).
It is postulated at saturated atmospheric conditions, the de-
D b 2 g ( ρl − ρv ) parture diameter of water boiling bubbles on the heating sur-
Bo = (7)
σ face should be less than or equal to the groove length to effec-
tively prevent the lateral coalescence of bubbles. Fig. 14 shows
where Db is the bubble departure diameter, σ is the surface ten-
the measured bubble departure diameter of the thin samples at
sion force, g is the gravitational force,ρl and ρv are the density of
q = 10.7 W/cm2 . The bubble departure diameter calculated by
liquid and vapor, respectively.
Eq. (7) is 2.43 mm, which is between the current groove length
Cole and Rohsenow’s [41] correlation for water is given by
of 2.2 mm and 2.8 mm. In addition, the bubble departure diam-
5
Bo1/2 = 1.5 × 10−4 J a∗ 4 (8) eter of the "S-2.2-thin’’ sample measured in the experiment is

8
H. Liu, J. Wang, Z. Gu et al.
Fig. 11. Comparison of pool boiling heat transfer with similar 3D-printed structures
or microgroove structures in the literature.
2.29 ± 0.24 mm. Considering the error between theoretical cal-
culation and bubble measurement, the current bubble departure
diameter is close to the sample with channel length of 2.2 mm.
This explains why the two groups of samples with different heights
have the highest CHF increase in the sample with groove length of
2.2 mm. The structure size of groove has an important influence on
liquid-vapor separation, and the matching of its structure size and
bubble departure diameter can achieve higher CHF enhancement
[18,42,43].
Fig. 12. Schematic of bubble movement with increasing heat flux (a) Small bubbles; (b) Growth bubbles; (c) Coalesced bubbles; (d) Escape bubbles.
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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122155
Fig. 13. Variation of CHF value with groove length.
3.2.2. Vapor and liquid flow resistance analysis
Previous studies have confirmed that changes in groove length
can improve gas-liquid separation and thus enhance CHF. It can be
seen from Fig. 13 that although the CHF changes of thin and thick
samples have the same trend, the CHF of all thick samples is lower
than that of thin samples. This is mainly due to the increase of
height, the flow path of bubbles in the groove structure increases,
and the resistance of bubble escape increases [30,39].
The effect of changing the height of the groove structure on the
vapor pressure drop in the groove can be explained by the viscous-
capillary limit CHF model. This model can be used to analyze the
H. Liu, J. Wang, Z. Gu et al.
Fig. 14. Comparison between experimental and predicted values of bubble depar-
ture diameter.
influence of porous material [44] and porous honeycomb [38] on
boiling heat transfer. The model assumes that the liquid can be
absorbed to the heating surface by capillary force in the porous
medium, and the generated vapor can escape from the groove.
CHF triggers when the pressure drop loss of the liquid-vapor path
in the groove exceeds the maximum capillary limit of the porous
medium. The equation is as follows:
 pc,max =  pl +  pv +  pa
where  pc,max is maximum capillary pressure,  pl and  pv are
the frictional pressure drop caused by the flow of liquid and vapor
in the groove, respectively.  pa is the accretional pressure drop
caused by the phase change.
Based on Eq. (10), Mori and Okuyama [38] proposed the CHF
correlation of the porous honeycomb. Calculation of friction pres-
sure drop by Darcy’s law, Eq. (10) can be rewritten as:
 2
μl Qmax Hp 32μv Hp Qmax ρv Q
 pc,max = + +  max
K AW ρl h f g ρv n d 4 h f g 2 ρv n d 2 h f g
where μl , ρl , μv and ρv are the liquid viscosity, the liquid density,
the vapor viscosity, and the liquid density, respectively,AW ,n,H p ,
and d are the contact area, number of grooves, the height of
groove, and groove size, respectively, h f g ,K, pc,max , and Qmax are
the latent heat of vaporization, the permeability, the maximum
capillary pressure, and the maximum heat transfer rate.
The permeability and capillary pressure of porous structure in
Eq. (10) are not considered in the current 3D-printed groove struc-
Fig. 15. Schematic diagram of vapor and liquid flows in grooves.
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 183 (2022) 122155
ture. A schematic diagram of vapor and water flows in a groove
structure is shown in Fig. 15. The capillary force formed by the
microporous layer on the surface of the groove structure and grav-
ity is used to balance the liquid-vapor friction pressure drop inside
the grooves. Under the condition of consistent dimensional param-
eters, the calculated Eq. (11) explains the decrease of CHF with in-
creasing height. The increase in height leads to a higher resistance
to the escape of bubbles inside the groove is a critical factor in the
reduction of CHF.
4. Conclusion
In this paper, groove structure specimens with different groove
lengths and heights were manufactured by SLM technique. Satu-
rated pool boiling heat transfer experiment at atmospheric pres-
sure was carried out to investigate the influence of different struc-
tural parameters on boiling heat transfer. The main conclusions are
as follows:
(1) Groove structure can dramatically enhance boiling heat
transfer. Both HTC and CHF of groove samples are higher than
those of smooth surface. Compared with smooth surface, the max-
imum CHF of 3.1 times and HTC of 2 times are achieved. There
exists an optimum groove length for the maximized CHF enhance-
ments, and its length is approximately equal to the bubble depar-
ture diameter.
(2) The increase of groove structure height will significantly re-
duce the HTC and CHF of the sample. HTC and CHF of 1.5 mm sam-
ple are higher than those of 3.0 mm height sample. Smaller groove
length and larger height increase the resistance to gas-liquid flow
resulting in lower heat transfer performance.
(3) Restriction of groove structure on bubble movement and
(10)
separation on heating surface is the critical factor to enhance heat
transfer enhancement. The increase of height increases the resis-
tance of liquid and vapor flow in the groove, which limits the im-
provement of heat transfer performance.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
(11) influence the work reported in this paper.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Houli Liu: Data curation, Investigation, Formal analysis, Writ-
ing – original draft. Jian Wang: Methodology, Visualization, Vali-
dation. Zhonghao Gu: Data curation, Writing – review & editing.
Xiaoming Fei: Validation, Writing – review & editing. Li Zhang:
Conceptualization, Resources, Writing – review & editing.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foun-
dation of China (No.51776074) and Fundamental Research Funds for
the Central Universities (JKG01211709).
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