Research Projects

Flow through porous media is an everyday occurrence in numerous natural and industrial systems. These systems are distinguished by the interconnecting pores of varying sizes [1–3]. The size of these pores may vary from few microns, as in the case of sintered wicks used in the heat pipes, to few centimetres as observed in packed beds [4]. Flow and thermal transport in the porous media are governed by various geometric parameters like size distribution of the pore radius (permeability) and connectedness of the pores (tortuosity). These parameters govern the different transport mechanism like diffusion and dispersion of heat and momentum, capillarity and wettability, and adsorption characteristics etc. The miniaturization of devices has increased the thermal heat loading which is getting difficult to dissipate efficiently with the traditional techniques of single-phase convective flows. The multi-phase convective flows provides the opportunity to dissipate the high heat load form the devices but at the same time, its difficult to control the dry-out or push the limit of maximum heat flux. There are various studies available which highlight that increasing the surface roughness increases the thermal transport in multiphase flows. The porous surfaces are also one of the alternatives which improve the heat transfer in the multi-phase flow.