Porous sintered microstructures are critical to the functioning of passive heat transport devices such as heat pipes. The topology and microstructure of the porous wick play a crucial role in determining the thermal performance of such devices. Three sintered copper wick samples employed in commercial heat pipes are characterized in this work in terms of their thermal transport properties––porosity, effective thermal conductivity, permeability, and interfacial heat transfer coefficient. The commercially available samples of nearly identical porosities (∼61% open volume) are CT scanned at 5.5 μm resolution, and the resulting image stack is reconstructed to produce high-quality finite volume meshes representing the solid and interstitial pore regions, with a conformal mesh at the interface separating these two regions. The resulting mesh is then employed for numerical analysis of thermal transport through fluid-saturated porous sintered beds. Multiple realizations are employed for statistically averaging out the randomness exhibited by the samples under consideration. The effective thermal conductivity and permeability data are compared with analytical models developed for spherical particle beds. The dependence of effective thermal conductivity of sintered samples on the extent of sintering is quantified. The interfacial heat transfer coefficient is compared against a correlation from the literature based on experimental data obtained with spherical particle beds. A modified correlation is proposed to match the results obtained.
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Direct Simulation of Thermal Transport Through Sintered Wick Microstructures
Karthik K. Bodla,
Karthik K. Bodla
Cooling Technologies Research Center, an NSF IUCRC, School of Mechanical Engineering and Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2088
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Jayathi Y. Murthy,
Jayathi Y. Murthy
Cooling Technologies Research Center, an NSF IUCRC, School of Mechanical Engineering and Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2088
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Suresh V. Garimella
Suresh V. Garimella
Cooling Technologies Research Center, an NSF IUCRC, School of Mechanical Engineering and Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2088
Search for other works by this author on:
Karthik K. Bodla
Cooling Technologies Research Center, an NSF IUCRC, School of Mechanical Engineering and Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2088
Jayathi Y. Murthy
Cooling Technologies Research Center, an NSF IUCRC, School of Mechanical Engineering and Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2088
Suresh V. Garimella
Cooling Technologies Research Center, an NSF IUCRC, School of Mechanical Engineering and Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University
, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2088J. Heat Transfer. Jan 2012, 134(1): 012602 (10 pages)
Published Online: November 29, 2011
Article history
Received:
January 17, 2011
Revised:
July 27, 2011
Online:
November 29, 2011
Published:
November 29, 2011
Citation
Bodla, K. K., Murthy, J. Y., and Garimella, S. V. (November 29, 2011). "Direct Simulation of Thermal Transport Through Sintered Wick Microstructures." ASME. J. Heat Transfer. January 2012; 134(1): 012602. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4004804
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