Computational study of a 2D capillary pump evaporator

Capillary pump loop (CPL) is a two-phase heat transfer device considered as a useful solution for thermal control applications in spacecrafts, satellites and electronic components. The purpose of this paper is to study various aspects of the working state of the CPL evaporator. A two-dimensional computational model was developed in order to analyze the flow and the phase transformation inside a cylindrical evaporator. At the present analysis, different cases were studied by changing liquid saturation temperature, inclination angle of the evaporator and the length of the porous heated wick. Water, ammonia, acetone and freon-134 were used as working liquids for numerical experiments. Results present the evaporator capability to vaporize each working liquid and find out its possibility of dry-out causing failure. This information is useful in choosing the best working liquid for an evaporator, enabling bigger amounts of heat to be transferred.