• loop heat pipe
• heat pipe
• wicks
• graphene
• capillary pressure

The experimental thesis has been carried out at Microgravity Research Center at Université Libre de Bruxelles. The main goal of the project was to characterize the performances of porous media used in different thermal management applications, such as heat pipes, loop heat pipes and so on. Two different experiments have been carried out: the first one concerns the measurements of the capillary pressure generated across the wick, the second one focuses on the absorption rate of the wick when it enters into contact with a fluid. The experiments have been conducted on two different groups of wicks, which have been subjected to different surface treatments. Moreover, some of the wicks of both groups have been coated with graphene with two different coating techniques, performed by CNR Bologna and Cambridge University. The analysis of the results highlights how the different surface treatments influence the performances of the wicks.