Molecular dynamics study on the effect of hydrophilicity on thin film evaporation over biphilic surface

Abstract

The objective of this study is to understand the effect of surface wettability and how nano-scale heat transfer is affected by different surface wetting conditions over biphilic surface by molecular dynamics simulations. The system of 3 nm liquid Argon film over Platinum surface is equilibrated at 90 K and then wall temperature is raised to higher value to study the effect of temperature. According to this study at low wall temperature and low surface wetting conditions, liquid temperature increases proportionally with the increment of hydrophilic portion but at higher wall temperature and better surface wetting conditions, maximum value of liquid Argon temperature increases with increasing hydrophobic portion. Evaporation number, evaporative mass flux and heat flux increase significantly with slight increment of hydrophilic portion. Inception time decreases with increasing hydrophilic portion and surface wettability. Also, for better surface wetting conditions, average evaporative mass flux is more sensitive to wall temperature and increases significantly at higher wall temperature.