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A study on the mechanism of water vapour condensation inhibition by nanostructures on the copper surface

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Abstract

Frost on the evaporator surface of an air source heat pump can seriously reduce the heat pump coefficient of the unit, and the surface nanostructure is the key to effectively inhibiting water vapour condensation in the early stages of frosting. In this paper, the wetting process of nanodroplets on square column type, prismatic cone type and prismatic platform nanostructures was studied by molecular dynamics, and the nucleation and growth process of water vapour on three nanostructures were analysed. It was found that the droplets in the prismatic cone structure were less likely to reach a stable wetting state than in the other two structures. For the condensation process of water vapour on the surface of the three nanostructures, water molecules are more distributed on the surface of the prismatic cone matrix with a smaller size, and less distributed on the surface of the square column matrix with a larger size. The order of the clusters starting to merge is square column matrix, prismatic platform matrix and prismatic cone matrix. The results showed that the stable coagulation rates are, in descending order, a square columnar matrix, a prismatic platform matrix and a prismatic cone matrix. With the increase in the height of the prismatic cone matrix surface structure, the condensation rate of water vapour accelerates, the droplet size increases, and the condensation nucleus decreases. These findings can provide microscopic and fundamental suggestions for surface structure design to inhibit the early frosting of water vapour in the air.

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Data availability

The data presented in this study that support the findings are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the School of Civil Engineering and Construction for providing the liquid droplet contact angle measurement apparatus, Prof. Xiaoyan Liu for providing ideas and methods, Mr. Yang Yang and Mr. Shaotong Feng for their timely assistance in conducting the simulations, guidance on the simulation and theoretical analysis of this paper by Mr. Hubao A of Wuhan University and the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 52076036.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, 163319, Heilongjiang, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaoyan Liu, Huanyu Zhang, Hui Jiang, Yang Yang, Shaotong Feng, Chonghao Liang & Yongying Jia

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  1. Xiaoyan Liu
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Correspondence to Yongying Jia.

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Liu, X., Zhang, H., Jiang, H. et al. A study on the mechanism of water vapour condensation inhibition by nanostructures on the copper surface. J Mater Sci 57, 20615–20630 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-022-07828-y

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