Parameter Identification of the Capillary Rising Process in Nanomaterials for Evaporative Cooling Applications

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of fluid lift dynamics due to the capillary effect, as well as the development of the reliable mathematical model of capillary rising process based on parameter identification considering the experimental results data. The results of the research are applicable in evaporative cooling technologies, inertial-filtering separation, and filtration processes. Additionally, they can be applied in the fields of air conditioning, heat recovery, and electricity generation cycles. The practical significance of the obtained data is in relatively high performance (absorbency, thermal resistance, and liquid transportation capacity) of studied material samples for use in heat and mass transfer equipment. The experimental research consists of four stages for five samples of paper-like porous nanomaterial. The achieved results are used to evaluate the height of the liquid rising along capillary-porous material in time of the process. According to the results of analytical and experimental studies, the mathematical model was developed for the aim of estimating the parameters of the liquid’s movement. Particularly, the proposed approaches based on both quasi- and nonlinear, single- and multiparameter regression analyses, the rising-rate parameter and the maximum height of the liquid’s rise along the capillary plate were identified. Carrying out the validation of the proposed mathematical models with experimental results allows concluding that the two-parameter estimation of the operating parameters with the relatively high value of the r-Pearson correlation coefficient allows clarifying the proposed reliable mathematical model of liquid’s lifting process in capillary-porous media with enough accuracy.