Experimental and numerical study on the capillary performance of non-homogeneous micro-post arrays

Abstract

In this article, an advanced cooling surface based on micro-post arrays with non-homogeneous configurations is investigated and compared with conventional micro-post arrays with homogeneous configuration. The capillary performance of micro-post arrays are characterized using the capillary rate of rise experiments and numerical simulations which take into account the meniscus curvature. The experimental and numerical results show that that the capillary performance of the micro-post wick can be significantly enhanced, compared with the homogeneous type wick, by employing non-homogeneous configurations. The capillary performance is shown to be primarily a function of the solid fraction and increases linearly with decreasing solid fraction, regardless of the wick configuration, when the solid fraction is larger than 0.25. However, the capillary performance is found to be significantly reduced when the solid fraction falls below approximately 0.25.