Affiliations: Division of Mechanical Engineering, Ajou University,
Wonchon-Dong, Suwon, 442-749, Korea. E-mail: hyunkim@ajou.ac.kr | Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering,
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996 2210, USA
Abstract: Flow and thermal characteristics are studied for capillary pore
cavities with free surfaces ranging from 10-mm to 10-μm
diameter. Also the effect of micro gravity is investigated. A standard finite
volume method (FVM), in association with the well-established boundary fitted
coordinate transformation (BFCT), is used to numerically solve the governing
equations for primitive scalar variables of velocity components, pressure and
temperature. Calculation results show that the convection-driven circulation
and the thermocapillary phoresis effect dominate the flow and thermal fields of
larger pores, bigger than 1.0-mm diameter. With decreasing pore diameter, the
flow circulation diminishes and the interfacial evaporation dominates to
establish nearly stratified flow patterns parallel to the pore wall.
Micro-scale capillary pores, less than 1.0-mm diameter, show no flow
circulation with almost horizontally stratified temperature fields. Micro
gravity condition shifts this transition which is from convection-driven to
interfacial flow dominated flow regime to bigger pore diameter.
