| Title | High-Flux Boiling/Evaporation of Isopentane from a Structured-Porous Fin |
|---|---|
| Authors | Zenghui Zhao; Wirtz, R. A. |
| Year | 2009 |
| Conference | Geothermal Resources Council Transactions |
| Keywords | Geothermal; Porous Media; Nucleate Boiling; Flow Boiling; Isopentane; Wire Mesh; Second Law; Entropy |
| Abstract | Porous media consisting of stacked and bonded layers of fine-weave woven material deliver a highly convoluted, open cell porous structure having a large specific surface area and wide ranging pore size. When deployed as a porous fin in a flowboiling application, these structures provide stable boiling with fin base-area heat fluxes ranging to 0.6 MW/m2 at a moderate superheat. The fin base-area heat flux is found to increase almost linearly proportional to the superheat. It is also observed that stable boiling is sustained at superheats greater than those normally associated with critical heat flux. A Second Law analysis shows that this technology realizes a significant improvement in the boiling efficiency. |