Research Interests
Heat transfer with phase change, stability of evaporating thin films, two-phase capillary pumped heat transfer devices (specifically loop heat pipes and arterial heat pipes), spacecraft thermal control, electronics cooling.
Background Information
The two-phase capillary-pumped thermal control devices offer efficient solutions for the highly demanding thermal cooling problems, where the conventional thermal management techniques are inefficient. The advantages of these systems over traditional heat transport methods include high thermal conductivity, simplicity, small end-to-end temperature drop, lack of moving parts and the ability to transfer large amounts of heat. In these devices, the surface tension forces formed in a fine-pore wick facilitates the circulation of the working fluid. A major difficulty for more advanced development of these systems is the lack of accurate mathematical models. Due to the complexity of the two-phase phenomena involved in the operation of these devices, mathematical modeling is particularly challenging. The main purpose of the research is to improve the understanding of thermophysics phenomena taking place in these devices through mathematical modeling and experimental investigation.
Research Sponsors
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL)
Bristol Aerospace
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC)
CSA (Canadian Space Agency)
Canadensys Aerospace Co.
DRDC (Defence Research and Development Canada)
IberEspacio, Spain
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, Japan)
NRC (National Research Council)
NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council)
OCE (Ontario Centers of Excellence)