Advances in Dropwise Condensation: Dancing Droplets

Vapor condensation is a ubiquitous phase change phenomenon in nature, as well as widely exploited in various industrial applications such as power generation, water treatment and harvesting, heating and cooling, environmental control, and thermal management of electronics. Condensation performance is highly dependent on the interfacial transport and its enhancement promises considerable savings in energy and resources. Recent advances in micro/nano-fabrication and surface chemistry modification techniques have not only enabled exciting interfacial phenomenon and condensation enhancement but also furthered the fundamental understanding of interfacial wetting and transport. In this chapter, we present an overview of dropwise condensation heat transfer with a focus on improving droplet behaviors through surface design and modification. We briefly summarize the basics of interfacial wetting and droplet dynamics in condensation process, discuss the underlying mechanisms of droplet manipulation for condensation enhancement, and introduce some emerging works to illustrate the power of surface modification. Finally, we conclude this chapter by providing the perspectives for future surface design in the field of condensation enhancement

Thermodynamic performance of a double-effect absorption heat-transformer using TFE/E181 as the working fluid

Trifluoroethanol(TFE)-tetraethylenglycol dimethylether (TEGDME or E181) is a new organic working-pair which is non-corrosive, completely miscible and thermally stable up to 250 °C. It is suitable for upgrading low-temperature level industrial waste-heat to a higher temperature level for reuse. In this paper, the thermodynamic performance of the double-effect absorption heat-transformer (DEAHT) using TFE/E181 as the working fluid is simulated, based on the thermodynamic properties of TFE/E181 solution. The results show that, when the temperature in the high-pressure generator exceeds 100 °C and the gross temperature lift is 30 °C, the coefficient of performance (COP) of the DEAHT is about 0.58, which is larger than the 0.48 of the single-stage absorption heat-transformer (SAHT), the increase of COP is about 20%. But it is still less than 0.64 of the DEAHT using LiBr-H2O as the working fluid. Meanwhile, the COP of the DEAHT decreases more rapidly with increases of the absorption temperature than that for the SAHT. The range of available gross temperature-lift for the DEAHT is narrower than that of the SAHT. The higher the temperature in the high-pressure generator, the larger the gross temperature-lift could be. So the double-effect absorption heat-transformer is more suitable for being applied in those circumstances of having a higher-temperature heat-resource and when a higher temperature-lift is not needed.Double-effect absorption heat-transformer Thermodynamic performance Organic working-fluid TFE/E181 Industrial waste-heat recovery

Coupling droplets/bubbles with a liquid film for enhancing phase-change heat transfer

Summary: Evaporation, boiling, and condensation are fundamental liquid-vapor phase-change heat transfer processes and have been utilized in many conventional and emerging energy systems. Recent advances in the manipulation of interface wetting and heterogeneous nucleation using micro/nano-structured surfaces have enabled exciting two-phase flow dynamics and heat transfer enhancement. However, independently manipulating droplets, bubbles, or liquid films through surface modification has encountered bottlenecks. In this Perspective, we discuss an emerging strategy where droplets/bubbles are coupled with a liquid film to control fluid dynamics for minimizing the thermal resistance between the liquid-vapor interface and solid substrate, thus significantly enhancing the heat transfer performance beyond the state of the art

CryoLetters

The objective of this study is to compare the effects of different well defined freezing solutions with a reduced concentration of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) combined with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and/or trehalose on cryopreservation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from mice, rats and calves. Post-thaw cell viability, proliferation capacity and differentiation potential of MSCs from different species were assessed after cryopreservation with the conventional slow freezing method. Although the post-thaw viabilities and metabolic activities varied among the different species, satisfactory results were obtained with 5% (v/v) DMSO, 2% (w/v) PEG, 3% (w/v) trehalose and 2% (w/v) bovine serum albumin (BSA) as the freezing solution. Our results showed that mouse MSCs were more robust to cryopreservation compared with rat and bovine MSCs.The objective of this study is to compare the effects of different well defined freezing solutions with a reduced concentration of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) combined with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and/or trehalose on cryopreservation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from mice, rats and calves. Post-thaw cell viability, proliferation capacity and differentiation potential of MSCs from different species were assessed after cryopreservation with the conventional slow freezing method. Although the post-thaw viabilities and metabolic activities varied among the different species, satisfactory results were obtained with 5% (v/v) DMSO, 2% (w/v) PEG, 3% (w/v) trehalose and 2% (w/v) bovine serum albumin (BSA) as the freezing solution. Our results showed that mouse MSCs were more robust to cryopreservation compared with rat and bovine MSCs