Preston, Daniel J2024-05-212024-052024-04-18May 2024Noce, Evan. Tailored Wicking Performance in Porous Media Attained with Additive Manufacturing. (2024). Masters thesis, Rice University. https://hdl.handle.net/1911/116136https://hdl.handle.net/1911/116136EMBARGO NOTE: This item is embargoed until 2025-05-01Additive manufacturing (AM) has improved the ability and accessibility of manufacturing wicking materials. With lower manufacturing costs than traditional methods, AM is of particular value to fields such as thermal management and microfluidics to decrease the unit price of devices. Due to the limited control of the flow rate of wicking in porous media, designing these materials is a significant challenge. As a result, there is a need for easy-to-produce materials with tailorable wicking performance. In this work, we present a method of predicting wicking in porous media, achieved through the use of AM to create porous structures with simple geometries. Layers of parallel lines, each successive layer rotated 90° from the last, formed a gridded structure for which analytical models for the capillary pressure and solid fraction and a semi-analytical model for permeability were found. These models were then verified with capillary rise experiments against gravity using an area-independent form of Darcy’s law. The experiments validated the models over a range of solid fractions from 0.4 to 0.9. Finally, by representing porous media as a series of Ohmic fluidic resistors, we designed wicking material with spatially varying parameters. These materials achieved non-intuitive wicking performances, such as progressions that were linear or piecewise functions of time rather than the traditional exponential Washburn relationship.application/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.capillary flowporous media3D printingpermeabilityThesis2024-05-21