To investigate the evaporation characteristics of porous media with different porosity

2 pressed slice samples composed of nickel powder are manufactured with porosities 0.85

0.75 and 0.60 (named sample A

B and C). The slice samples are long and thin that the wetting frontier movement can be clearly visible during suction. The samples were firstly used in suction experiments in which ethanol penetration was recorded by a high-speed camera. The results show that the sample with larger porosity has higher suction rate. It is because that porous media with larger porosity have larger pore sizes

which can promote the suction rate according to theoretical analysis. Next the samples were heated with constant heat load to test their cooling ability and research their heat transfer efficiency by evaporation. Heating experiments were separated into 3 parts:steady state-cooling

dry-cooling and wet-cooling. Steady state-cooling results show that larger porosity sample has higher evaporation rate mainly due to its higher suction ability. Dry-cooling is aimed to compare samples' transient cooling ability. The results indicate that the highest heat flux caused by evaporation belongs to sample A while its cooling time is the shortest. Although sample C keeps cooling for the longest

its limited evaporation heat flux constrains its cooling degree. Sample B

with both modest evaporation heat flux and cooling time decreases the heater temperature most. In wet-cooling test (on purpose of testing samples' performance in dry-out condition)

sample A keeps itself wet for the longest time and has the highest dry-out temperature

representing the best ability to avoid dry-out phenomenon. Sample B shows relative low superheat degree and the longest time in intensive evaporation

resulting in its overall working temperature being the lowest.