Experimental Study on Heat Transfer Enhancement During Condensation Using Microstructured Surfaces

Microstructured surfaces have been found to be energy efficient and cost effective through enhancement of heat transfer, drag reduction and anti-fouling in areas such as thermal engineering, fluid mechanics, microelectronics and transportation.However, their use with the condensation phenomenon has yet to receive considerable attention.Therefore, based on a new approach to recover energy in humid environments, the influence of different geometries manufactured on stainless steel inserts via micro-wire electro discharge machining (µ-WEDM) on condensation was analysed.The experimental work was carried out in a chamber with a high percentage of relative humidity (% RH) comparing the geometries against an unstructured surface.The experimental results showed a differential temperature (ΔT), 26% higher than the unstructured surface.Thus, it is reasonable to believe that this experimental study could be used in the design of energy recovery systems to enhance condensation heat transfer.