A Review of Research on Dropwise Condensation Heat Transfer

Abstract

Dropwise condensation is considered to be an effective method of enhancing heat transfer due to its high heat transfer performance. However, because the effect of dropwise condensation is affected by many complex factors, there is no systematic review summarized on the law of dropwise condensation heat transfer by scholars. In this paper, the main methods and problems of promoting dropwise condensation were reviewed based on the dropwise condensation mechanism and theoretical model. The three different hypotheses about the mechanism of dropwise condensation and the heat transfer model of dropwise condensation based on the hypothesis of nucleation sites were summarized. The methods for promoting dropwise condensation and the problems that influence dropwise condensation heat transfer are introduced in this paper. The research showed that many researchers focused on how the surface fabricated forms dropwise condensation rather than whether it enhances heat transfer. In this paper, we point out that the droplet shedding rate is the key to enhancing dropwise condensation heat transfer. Much more research on droplet formation mechanisms and theoretical models of different surfaces is supposed to be carried out in the future.

Keywords

• dropwise condensation
• heat transfer model
• surface modification
• enhanced heat transfer