Experimental Study of Capillary Pumping During Vaporization in a Square Cross Section Microchannel

An experimental study is undertaken to investigate microcapillary pumped loop (micro-CPL) evaporator behaviours. The experimental set-up is made of a horizontal square cross section glass microchannel which is locally heated up in order to analyze vaporization. A specific procedure allowed us to investigate the capillary pumping due to vaporization: the mass flow rate according to heat flux applied is determined. A laser-induced fluorescence technique has been used to observe phases distribution in the microchannel during vaporization, especially the liquid raising in the corners. The extended meniscus zone length has been determined as a function of the heat flux using image processing.