Enhanced Heat Transfer and Fouling Propensity of Diamond-Like Carbon Coated Smooth and Finned Tubes During External Nucleate Boiling

Smooth DLC (diamond-like carbon) coated surfaces can profoundly mitigate scaling during pool boiling of calcium sulphate solutions. Previous investigations though carried out mostly for the smooth surfaces rather than structured, i.e., finned tubes. This study compares experimental results of DLC coated smooth and finned tubes at clean and fouling conditions. Fouling runs were conducted during pool boiling of saturated CaSO₄ solution of 1.6 g/L at 300 kW/m². The substrate of the attempted tubes was stainless steel and finned tubes of 19 and 40 fins per inch were used. The DLC coated smooth tube showed an enhanced clean heat transfer up to 50% and reduced fouling resistance compared to the uncoated smooth tube. After a short operating time, though, the coated smooth tube reached an asymptotic fouling resistance of 0.00005 m² K/W whereas for the uncoated smooth tube, it was 4.8 times higher. DLC coating of the finned tubes with the physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique implicated difficulties. The base surface of the finned tubes was defectively coated. The defectiveness of the coating was attributed to the limitation of the PVD for coating of structured surfaces.