An experimental study of thermally actuated pumping of a single-phase, single-component fluid is presented in the context of thermal management of a heat source. The prominent feature of this pumping method is that the very heat that is to be removed from the heat source causes a net fluid motion. Therefore, such a thermal management system tends to be passive and noiseless. The dominant driving force for
convection in this study is surface tension. An asymmetry in this force is created by the use of a surface with repeated asymmetric triangular structures.
Silicone oil was used as the working fluid. Independent parameters consisted of the
channel surface-to-ambient temperature difference and the fluid thickness. A dye-tracking imaging method was developed to determine the fluid interfacial velocity.
The flow results were corroborated with interfacial temperature measurements
obtained using infrared thermography.
Dye tracking experiments indicate that the direction of net fluid motion is from the less-steep side of the ratchet towards its steeper side, resulting in a clockwise flow direction in the closed loop channel for all three liquid depths of 0.5 mm, 1.0 mm and 2.7 mm. The range of the net flow velocities varies from 0.18 mm/min to 0.86
mm/min. A fluid height of 1 mm results in a maximum net fluid velocity at both surface-to-ambient temperatures studied. Interfacial temperature contour maps
indicate the presence of thermal structures that are indicative of convection cells, and
that an optimum thickness exists for maximum heat transfer coefficient. Difference in streamwise gradients of temperature (and hence surface tension) on either side of the thermal structures causes a net streamwise surface tension gradient in the direction of net fluid motion. An optimal fluid thickness for heat transfer as well as net interfacial fluid velocity is suggested by the results
