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 liquidvapor interface was maintained at wickgroove 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.