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ISSN Online: 2377-424X

International Heat Transfer Conference 12
August, 18-23, 2002, Grenoble, France

On the heat and mass tranfer with liquid-vapor phase change in capillary porous media. Application to capillary evaporators

Get access (open in a dialog) DOI: 10.1615/IHTC12.4740
6 pages

要約

Two aspects of transfers within the wick of a capillary evaporator are considered. First, we discuss experimental results obtained with a transparent two-dimensional porous medium. On the whole, the results are in agreement with previous pore-network numerical simulations. However, the experimental results also indicate the existence of thin films along the pore walls that explains why trapped liquid clusters can be observed even under steady-state conditions. This effect was neglected in the simulations. Then, we address the problem of the growth of the vapor zone induced by the imposed heat load at the boundary of the porous domain. We develop theoretical arguments and simulations consistent with the existence of a lower operating limit. The analysis suggests that the heat load should be sufficient for viscous effects to affect significantly the extension of the vapor zone in order to prevent possible depriming of the system due to a capillary fingering breakthrough.