Analysis of Wetting Characteristics on Microstructured Hydrophobic Surfaces for the Passive Containment Cooling System

As the heat transfer surface in the passive containment cooling system, the anticorrosion coating (AC) of steel containment vessel (CV) must meet the requirements on heat transfer performance. One of the wall surface ACs with simple structure, high mechanical strength, and well hydrophobic characteristics, which is conductive to form dropwise condensation, is significant for the heat removal of the CV. In this paper, the grooved structures on silicon wafers by lithographic methods are systematically prepared to investigate the effects of microstructures on the hydrophobic property of the surfaces. The results show that the hydrophobicity is dramatically improved in comparison with the conventional Wenzel and Cassie-Baxter model. In addition, the experimental results are successfully explained by the interface state effect. As a consequence, it is indicated that favorable hydrophobicity can be obtained even if the surface is with lower roughness and without any chemical modifications, which provides feasible solutions for improving the heat transfer performance of CV.