Experimental and Numerical Studies of Water Droplet Impact on a Porous Surface in the Film-Boiling Regime

Inhibiting the Leidenfrost Effect by Superhydrophilic Nickel Foams with Ultrafast Droplet Permeation

Inhibiting the Leidenfrost effect has drawn extensive attention due to its detrimental impact on heat dissipation in high-temperature industrial applications. Although hierarchical structures have improved the Leidenfrost point to over 1000 °C, the current performance of single-scale structures remains inadequate. Herein, we present a facile high-temperature treatment method to fabricate superhydrophilic nickel foams that demonstrate ultrafast droplet permeation within tens of milliseconds, elevating the Leidenfrost point above 500 °C. Theoretical analysis based on the pressure balance suggests that these remarkable features arise from the superhydrophilic property, high porosity, and large pore diameter of nickel foams that promote capillary wicking and vapor evacuation. Compared to solid nickel surfaces with a Leidenfrost temperature of approximately 235 °C, nickel foams nucleate boiling at high superheat, triggering an order of magnitude higher heat flux. The effects of the pore diameter and surface temperature on droplet permeation behaviors and heat transfer characteristics are also elucidated. The results indicate that droplet permeation is dominated by inertial and capillary forces at low and high superheat, respectively, and moderate pore diameters are more conducive to facilitating droplet permeation. Furthermore, our heat transfer model reveals that pore diameter plays a negligible role in the heat flux at high surface temperatures due to the trade-off between effective thermal conductivity and specific surface area. This work provides a new strategy to address the Leidenfrost effect by metal foams, which may promise great potential in steel forging and nuclear reactor safety.

Jumps, somersaults, and symmetry breaking in Leidenfrost drops

When a droplet of water impacts a heated surface, the drop may be observed to bounce. Recently is has been found that small quantities (∼100 ppm) of polymer additives such as polyethylene oxide can significantly increase the maximum bouncing height of drops. This effect has been explained in terms of the reduction of energy dissipation caused by polymer additives during the drop retraction and rebound, resulting in higher mechanical energy available for bouncing. Here we demonstrate, by comparing three types of fluids (Newtonian, shear-thinning, and viscoelastic), that the total kinetic energy carried by low-viscosity Newtonian drops during retraction is partly transformed into rotational kinetic energy rather than dissipated when compared with high-viscosity or non-Newtonian drops. We also show that non-Newtonian effects play little role in the energy distribution during drop impact, while the main effect is due to the symmetry break observed during the retraction of low-viscosity drops.