Investigation on flow and heat transfer characteristics in capillary porous wick based on alkali metal thermal-to-electric converter (AMTEC)

An axial symmetric invariable temperature phase change interface model of capillary porous wick based on alkali metal thermal-to-electric converter (AMTEC) is established to simulate flow and heat transfer characteristics in capillary porous wick and liquid channel by solving the mass and heat transport controlling equations. The effects of the working fluid flow rate, inlet temperature, porous wick thickness, porosity and effective pore diameter on the distributions of pressure, velocity and temperature are analyzed. In addition, the available effective pore size of the porous wick and the measures to improve the performance of the porous wick are given by analyzing the relationship between the maximum available capillary pressure and the loop pressure drop. The results show that the model presented in gives a good agreement with the three dimensional two-phase evaporation model. The flow and heat transfer characteristics of the capillary porous wick with the alkali metal liquid as working fluid are different from that with the traditional working fluid in some ways.