Taking porous wick evaporator based on the principle of capillary pumped loop (CPL) as object and considering the wick
vapor groove and casing as a whole
the heat transfer and phase change characteristics of alkali metal working fluid in the porous wick evaporator were analyzed by numerical simulation method. The distributions of vapor phase volume fraction
temperature
pressure and velocity of working medium were obtained. The results showed that the average superheat of porous wick was less than 1K due to high thermal conductivity of alkali metal liquid. The evaporation of alkali metal liquid took place at outside surface of the porous wick and the liquidvapor interface was maintained at wickgroove interface. Under the same parameter conditions
the evaporator using alkali metal had greater transport capacity since its capillary force was 1 to 2 orders of magnitude higher than that of the evaporator using conventional working fluid.