Monoporous micropillar wick structures, I-Mass transport characteristics

Abstract

This paper is the first of a two-part study concerning the relation between the geometry of micropillar array wicks and their thermohydraulic performance. In this paper, a parametric study of pillar array geometries is conducted, and the efficacies of existing capillary pressure and permeability models in predicting the experimental results are examined. A new method is utilized to independently measure the permeability and capillary pressure of a wick structure. A permeability model based on creeping flow past infinitely long cylinders, corrected to account for the effect of meniscus curvature on mass flow rate through pillar arrays with a limited height, closely predicts the experimental data. Also, a model that relates the capillary pressure to the wick geometry using a thermodynamic approach better predicts the experimental results. The approach adopted by this model involves using a surface energy minimization algorithm to determine the shape of the meniscus within the pillars. These permeability and capillary pressure models were coupled with Darcy's law for fluid flow to obtain an overall expression for flow through micropillar arrays. The overall model is utilized in the second part of this study to determine optimized micropillar wick geometries and the theoretical limits of their performance.