화학공학소재연구정보센터
Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol.336, No.1, 374-375, 2009
Comment on "The effect of evaporation on the wicking of liquids into a metallic weave" by N. Fries, K. Odic, M. Conrath and M. Dreyer
A recent paper reported capillary rise and evaporation experiments in metallic wicks, as well as a mathematical model. The authors found a consistent discrepancy between the model predictions and data: The model over-predicted the capillary height rise by about 20%. The model used assumes that the porous medium is either fully wet or dry, an assumption that is particularly unsuited to evaporation from the wick surface. An alternative variable-saturation model is proposed that provides a possible explanation for the 20% discrepancy reported by the authors. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.