Enhancing Capillary Pressure of Porous Aluminum Wicks by Controlling Bi-Porous Structure Using Different-Sized NaCl Space Holders

Capillary pressure and permeability of porous media are important for heat transfer devices, including loop heat pipes. In general, smaller pore sizes enhance capillary pressure but decrease permeability. Introducing a bi-porous structure is promising for solving this trade-off relation. In this study, the bi-porous aluminum was fabricated by the space holder method using two different-sized NaCl particles (approximately 400 and 40 μm). The capillary pressure and permeability of the bi-porous Al were evaluated and compared with those of mono-porous Al fabricated by the space holder method. Increasing the porosity of the mono-porous Al improved the permeability but reduced the capillary pressure because of better-connected pores and increased effective pore size. The fraction of large and small pores in the bi-porous Al was successfully controlled under a constant porosity of 70%. The capillary pressure of the bi-porous Al with 40% large and 30% small pores was higher than the mono-porous Al with 70% porosity without sacrificing the permeability. However, the bi-porous Al with other fractions of large and small pores did not exhibit properties superior to the mono-porous Al. Thus, accurately controlling the fractions of large and small pores is required to enhance the capillary performance by introducing the bi-porous structure.