Abstract
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were employed to investigate the pool boiling heat transfer of a liquid argon thin film on a flat, horizontal copper wall structured with vertical nanoscale pillars. The efficacy of phobic/philic nano-patterning for enhancing boiling heat transfer was scrutinized. Both nucleate and explosive boiling modes were considered. An error analysis demonstrated that the typical 2.5σ cutoff in MD simulations could under-predict heat flux by about 8.7%, and 6σ cutoff was chosen here in order to maintain high accuracy. A new coordination number criterion was also introduced to better quantify evaporation characteristics. Results indicate that the argon-phobic/philic patterning tends to either have no effect, or decrease overall boiling heat flux, while the argon-philic nano-pillar/argon-philic wall shows the best heat transfer performance.