• Open Access

Numerical investigation of nanoporous evaporation using direct simulation Monte Carlo

Benzi John, Ryan Enright, James E. Sprittles, Livio Gibelli, David R. Emerson, and Duncan A. Lockerby
Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 113401 – Published 4 November 2019

Abstract

Evaporation is an effective cooling mechanism widely exploited in the thermal management of modern electronic devices, with a growing interest in the evaporation process in thin-film-based nanoporous membrane technologies. At such scales, classical approaches fail and one requires solutions of the Boltzmann equation; these are obtained here using the direct simulation Monte Carlo method. In particular, the evaporation from representative nanoporous meniscus shapes, corresponding to different operating conditions, has been investigated. Evaporation rates for the different conditions have been characterized as a function of a wide range of Knudsen numbers and free-stream Mach numbers. Additionally, the influence of porosity and evaporation coefficient on the nanoporous evaporation rates has been assessed. Investigations have also been carried out to consider cases where the meniscus has sunk within the pore, and cooling efficacy compared with cases where the meniscus is pinned to the top of the pore. This work demonstrates that the net evaporative mass flux is ultimately determined by the interplay between various physical effects, whose dominance is quantified by the Knudsen number, porosity, evaporation coefficient, and the meniscus shape. This work thus provides useful information for the design of nanoporous membrane-based cooling devices.

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  • Received 9 July 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.4.113401

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Fluid Dynamics

Authors & Affiliations

Benzi John1,*, Ryan Enright2, James E. Sprittles3, Livio Gibelli4, David R. Emerson1, and Duncan A. Lockerby5

  • 1Scientific Computing Department, STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington WA4 4AD, United Kingdom
  • 2Efficient Energy Transfer Department (ηET), Nokia Bell Labs, Dublin D15 Y6NT, Ireland
  • 3Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick, Warwick CV4 7AL, United Kingdom
  • 4School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FB, United Kingdom
  • 5School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Warwick CV4 7AL, United Kingdom

  • *benzi.john@stfc.ac.uk

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Issue

Vol. 4, Iss. 11 — November 2019

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