Volume 219, Issue 2 2100458
Research Article

Effect of Heat Treatment on Wettability and Condensation Heat Transfer of Laser-Textured Stainless Steel Surfaces

Deyuan Lou

Deyuan Lou

Laser Group, School of Mechanical Engineering, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430068 China

Search for more papers by this author
Bo Wang

Bo Wang

Laser Group, School of Mechanical Engineering, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430068 China

Search for more papers by this author
Enkang Liang

Enkang Liang

Laser Group, School of Mechanical Engineering, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430068 China

Search for more papers by this author
Gengxin Lu

Gengxin Lu

Laser Group, School of Mechanical Engineering, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430068 China

Search for more papers by this author
Jian Cheng

Jian Cheng

Laser Group, School of Mechanical Engineering, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430068 China

Search for more papers by this author
Jiajin Liao

Jiajin Liao

Digital Innovation Division, Shanghai Wisdom Information Technology Corporation, Shanghai, 200092 China

Search for more papers by this author
Qibiao Yang

Qibiao Yang

Laser Group, School of Mechanical Engineering, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430068 China

Search for more papers by this author
Dun Liu

Corresponding Author

Dun Liu

Laser Group, School of Mechanical Engineering, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430068 China

Search for more papers by this author
First published: 03 November 2021
Citations: 1

Abstract

Organic coatings on metal plates are commonly used in the post-treatment of superhydrophobic surfaces to improve their steam condensation heat transfer. However, this causes environmental pollution, low thermal conductivity, and delamination. To avoid these drawbacks, laser texturing technology assisted by green post-treatment (heat treatment) is introduced for stainless steel surfaces in the present study. In particular, a stable periodic dual-scale micro-/nanostructure on SUS 304 stainless steel surface is obtained by nanosecond laser micro-/nanotexturing. The microstructures and chemical compositions of the laser-textured surfaces with and without heat treatment are investigated by scanning electron microscopy, an energy-dispersive spectrometer, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The formation of low-energy nanoburr oxides on the heat-treated surface is found to lead to intensive nucleation and growth of condensation droplets. Furthermore, the measured steam condensation heat transfer coefficient of the textured steel surface after heat treatment is about 1.83 times that of the original sample. Thus, the method proposed herein provides a promising green solution based on laser texturing to improve surface heat transfer without any chemical processing.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

Research data are not shared.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.