Boiling Heat Transfer Performance of Three-dimensionally Ordered Microporous Copper with Modulated Pore Diameters

There are significant interests in leveraging microporous surface for enhanced two phase cooling performance contributed by the entrapped vapor in pores and higher nucleation sites. However, the potentials for such porous media have yet to be realized due to the irregularity of the pore distributions and arrangement that are often used in boiling measurements. The lack of periodicity in pore packing limits the fundamental understanding of fluidic transport and bubble nucleation mechanics, making predictive modeling less accurate. Here, we report the pool boiling heat transfer performance of copper inverse opals, a microporous medium that exhibit a matrix of crystalline arranged pores. Various pore diameters of the inverse opals are investigated to provide insights into the boiling dynamics associated with porous structure morphologies. Increasing pore diameters show an increase in boiling heat transfer performance due to the combination of vapor permeability and sample thickness.