Enhanced pool boiling of dielectric and highly wetting liquids – A review on surface engineering

Dielectric liquids possess great potential for thermal management of electronic devices for containing features like environmental benign and are free from electrical hazards. One of the highly efficient cooling schemes with dielectric liquids is via pool boiling in immersion cooling. The present study reviews role of surface engineering in enhanced pool boiling highly wetting dielectric liquids. The current review consolidates the data of pool boiling of engineered surfaces in terms of heat transfer coefficient (HTC), critical heat flux (CHF), and temperature excursion. The engineered surfaces are classified with respect to their fabrication techniques (additive, subtractive, or combined). The enhanced pool boiling performance of these engineered surfaces is reported and discussed for both saturated and subcooled testing conditions. Also, discussions are made on some of the engineered surfaces that deteriorate the performance subjected to pool boiling of dielectric liquids. The promising engineered surfaces in terms of improved boiling performance (higher HTC and CHF) are highlighted as well. Moreover, the existing prediction methods (correlations, mechanistic models, and artificial intelligence based models) are evaluated. Finally, the research gaps in the pool boiling of dielectric liquids in terms of the surface engineering along with the prediction methods are identified.