Manufacturing and microstructural characterization of sintered nickel wicks for capillary pumps

Sintered nickel powder is proposed to be used as porous wicks in heat pipes and capillary pumps. In this work the manufacturing procedure for tubular wicks for capillary pump application is discussed. The porosity, mechanical resistance and roundness of tubular wicks made of carbonila powder, atomiz...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Eduardo Gonçalves Reimbrecht, Márcio Celso Fredel, Edson Bazzo, Fernando M. Pereira
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Associação Brasileira de Metalurgia e Materiais (ABM); Associação Brasileira de Cerâmica (ABC); Associação Brasileira de Polímeros (ABPol) 1999-07-01
Series:Materials Research
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-14391999000300019
Description
Summary:Sintered nickel powder is proposed to be used as porous wicks in heat pipes and capillary pumps. In this work the manufacturing procedure for tubular wicks for capillary pump application is discussed. The porosity, mechanical resistance and roundness of tubular wicks made of carbonila powder, atomized powder and a powder mixture of both are analyzed. A powder mixture was selected as the best raw material. In this case, pore size in the range of 2 to 24 <FONT FACE="Symbol">m</font>m and porosity about 50% were measured. First tests carried out in the laboratory, using acetone as the working fluid, show capillary pumping pressures up to 4 kPa and heat fluxes of about 1 W/cm2 in a two-phase heat transfer loop.
ISSN:1516-1439