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• The MR-2 SGHF exhibits the highest synergistic thermal conductivity. • The low mixing ratio droplets give highest evaporation rates for 25 °C≤ T s ≤ 100 °C. • The high mixing ratio droplets give highest evaporation rates for 103 °C≤ T s ≤ 125 °C. • The SGHF droplet evaporation rate on residue is up to 10 times that on copper. • The latent heat flux removal up to 890 W/cm2 is obtained using SGHF droplets. Thermal management of many high heat flux devices depends on droplet based cooling, such as the spray cooling or electro-wetting for hotspot cooling. Recently, heat dissipation in these devices increased to unprecedented levels, pressing a need for advanced thermal fluids in droplet based cooling systems. In this paper, we address this challenge by investigating the evaporation and boiling performance of the silver-graphene hybrid nanofluid (SGHF) droplet for its various mixing ratios and droplet sizes on a heated copper and a residue surface, obtained from the evaporation of the first SGHF droplet. The results show that low mixing ratio (MR ≤ 0.1) SGHF droplets exhibit highest evaporation rates for substrate temperature (T s) in a range of 25 °C ≤ T s ≤ 100 °C. However, this trend is reversed in the nucleate boiling regime, where high mixing ratio (MR ≥ 0.9) droplets give highest evaporation rates. Moreover, all SGHF droplets, irrespective of their mixing ratio, exhibit similar evaporation rates in the film-boiling regime. Furthermore, the SGHF droplet evaporation rate on its porous residue surface increases up to 173% for 25 °C ≤ T s ≤ 100 °C and by an order of magnitude in the nucleate boiling regime as compared to a plain copper surface. We also show that besides the synergistic thermal effect, the thermal Marangoni convection also affects the SGHF droplet evaporation rate. Moreover, we develop a diffusion-convection evaporation model that can predict the evaporation rate for different mixing ratios of the SGHF droplet on heated copper and residue surfaces. Moreover, we demonstrate that the latent heat flux up to 890 W/cm2 and 850 W/cm2 can be achieved using a SGHF droplet on heated copper and residue surfaces, respectively, suggesting its potential application in high heat flux device cooling. Finally, we discuss the effects of spray hydrodynamic parameters on critical heat flux of the SGHF spray cooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• MR-1 hybrid nanofluid droplet gives the highest evaporation rate (up to 370%). • The evaporation rate increases by 240% as V fd /V sd increases from 1 to 20. • The evaporation rate drops moving from MR-2 to MR-5 hybrid nanofluid droplets. • High droplet spreading is achieved in GNP/MR-1 nanofluid/hybrid nanofluid droplets. • The pore size and areal porosity increase with increasing residue size. Droplet evaporation offers high heat rejection rates and is widely used in the form of spray cooling or dropwise cooling of various heat dissipating devices. However, due to the limiting heat flux removal capacity of conventional fluids, such as water, these cannot be used in thermal management of high heat flux devices. In this research, the evaporation of silver (Ag)-graphene (GNP) hybrid nanofluid droplet and its residue effects on the evaporation of following Ag-GNP hybrid nanofluid droplet, due to its synergistic thermal properties, is experimentally investigated for various mixing ratios, from MR-1 (0.1(Ag):0.9(GNP)) to MR-5 (0.9(Ag):0.1(GNP)), and different residue sizes. A theoretical model is also proposed for hybrid nanofluid droplet evaporation and semi-empirical relations are developed to estimate the hybrid nanofluid droplet spreading over its residue surface. The results show a substantial increase in the droplet evaporation rate with increasing residue size and decreasing mixing ratio. MR-1 hybrid nanofluid droplet gives the highest evaporation rate (up to 370%) on its highly wetted residue surface, while the evaporation rate significantly drops moving from MR-2 to MR-5 hybrid nanofluid droplets on their partially wetted residue surfaces. Moreover, the evaporation rate substantially increases (up to 240%) with increasing residue size for MR-1 hybrid nanofluid droplet resting on its residue surface, however, the effect of residue size on droplet evaporation rate considerably diminishes moving from MR-2 to MR-5 hybrid nanofluid droplets resting on their respective residues. Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Droplet phase change is the key phenomenon for high heat transfer rates in spray or drop-wise cooling applications. Despite high cooling efficiency of the spray cooling technology, conventional fluids, such as water, cannot be used for thermal management of modern high heat flux devices due to their immense power density, resulting in early device failures. To address this issue, in this research, we experimentally study the evaporation performance for various volumes of the copper-alumina hybrid nanofluid (CAHF) droplet on a plain copper substrate and compare it with water (H 2 O) droplet in sub-boiling and boiling regimes (i.e., for substrate temperatures of 25–170 °C). We also numerically investigate and compare the internal velocity and thermal fields of CAHF and H 2 O droplets on a heated plain copper substrate. Besides the plain copper surface, we examine the phase change behaviour of the subsequent CAHF droplet over a heated residue surface that was obtained from the phase transition of the first CAHF droplet on a heated plain copper substrate. Our results demonstrate that the evaporation rate of CAHF droplets on a plain copper surface is up to 24% and an order of magnitude higher than water droplets in sub-boiling and nucleate boiling regimes, respectively. Moreover, the evaporation rate of the CAHF droplet on a residue surface increases up to 141% and 800% compared to that on a plain copper surface in sub-boiling and nucleate boiling regimes, respectively. Furthermore, the latent heat flux up to 10 times can be achieved using the CAHF droplet compared to H 2 O droplet on a plain copper substrate in the nucleate boiling region, making the CAHF a potential fluid for high heat flux cooling applications. • Evaporation rate of CAHF droplet is up to 24% that of water droplet for T s ≤ 100 °C. • CAHF droplet evaporation rate is up to 1300% that of water droplet for T s > 100 °C. • Latent heat flux of CAHF droplet is up to 1000% that of water droplet at T s > 100 °C. • Evaporation rate of CAHF droplet on its residue is up to 800% than on plain copper. • CAHF droplets exhibit higher thermal Marangoni convection than H 2 O droplets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]