Experimental Study of Thickness Effects on Evaporation/Boiling on Thin Sintered Copper Mesh Surfaces

Abstract

Evaporation/boiling from surfaces coated with multiple, uniform layers of sintered, isotropic, copper-mesh is studied experimentally. The investigation focuses on the effect of the wick thickness on the steady-state evaporation/boiling heat transfer coefficient and the critical heat flux under atmospheric pressure conditions. An optimal sintering process was developed and employed to prepare the test articles. This process minimizes the interface thermal contact resistance between the heated wall and wick, as well as enhancing the contact conditions between the layers of copper mesh. Due to the reduction in the thermal contact resistance between the wall and copper mesh, extremely high evaporation/boiling heat transfer coefficients were achieved. These values, which varied with input heat flux and wick thickness, were from 5 to 20 times higher than those previously reported by other researchers. The critical heat flux (CHF) was also significantly enhanced. The experimental results also indicated that while the evaporation/boiling heat transfer coefficient is not affected by wick thickness, the CHF for steady-state operation is strongly dependent on the wick layer thickness. In addition, the CHF increases proportionally with the wick thickness when the wick structure, porosity and pore size are held constant. Sample structure and fabrication processes as well as test procedures are described and discussed in detail and the experimental results and observations are systematically presented and analyzed. Evaporation/boiling Heat transfer regimes from these wick structures are identified and discussed based on the visual observations of the phase-change phenomena and the relative relationship between the heat flux and superheat.