碱金属热电转换的多孔芯内热质传输特性

Investigation on flow and heat transfer characteristics in capillary porous wick based on alkali metal thermal-to-electric converter(AMTEC)

对基于AMTEC(Alkali Metal Thermal-to-Electric Converter,碱金属热电转换器)的毛细多孔吸液芯建立轴对称恒温相变模型,通过求解多孔芯区及液体通道区热质传输控制方程得到毛细多孔芯中的流动与传热特性,分析了工质流量、入口温度、多孔芯厚度、孔隙率和有效孔径等参数对压力、速度和温度分布的影响;同时通过分析最大毛细力与回路压降之间的关系,给出了多孔芯有效孔径的适用范围和提高多孔芯性能的改进措施。研究结果表明:与三维两相流蒸发模型比较,文中的模型具有较好的预测准确性;以碱金属为工质的毛细多孔吸液芯和液体通道内的流动与传热特性与传统工质存在不同。

An axial symmetric invariable temperature phase change interface model of capillary porous wick based on alkali metal thermal-to-electric converter （AMTEC） is established to simulate flow and heat transfer characteristics in capillary porous wick and liquid channel by solving the mass and heat transport controlling equations. The effects of the working fluid flow rate, inlet temperature, porous wick thickness, porosity and effective pore diameter on the distributions of pressure, velocity and temperature are analyzed. In addition, the available effective pore size of the porous wick and the measures to improve the performance of the porous wick are given by analyzing the relationship between the maximum available capillary pressure and the loop pressure drop. The results show that the model presented in gives a good agreement with the three dimensional two-phase evaporation model. The flow and heat transfer characteristics of the capillary porous wick with the alkali metal liquid as working fluid are different from at with the traditional working fluid in some ways.