variavel0=<b>Emerson Freitas Jaguaribe</b> - ejaguaribe@uol.com.br Universidade Federal da Paraíba
<b>Marcos A. R. Andrade</b> - marandrade@bol.com.br UFPB
<b>Fábio B. Ferraz</b> -  UFPB
<b>Abstract.</b> This work discusses the effect of porous media to reduce the thermal inertia of water to be evaporated. Several experiments were conducted using a tray with water and others employing different porous media in an open tray, with the same amount of water and exposed to the same constant radiation. A semi-empirical correlation was used to theoretically evaluate the evaporated mass. A good agreement between the experimental and theoretical data for the evaporation in trays just containing water was reached. The resulting Pearson`s correlation coefficient was about 0.999. The experiments using porous media showed a small Pearson`s correlation coefficient, but still representative, i. e. superior to 0.99. It was observed in this last case that the coefficient of the correlation in use should be a function of the absortivity of the porous medium and of the thermal inertia it provoked.
<b>Keywords.</b> Porous media, thermal inertia, capillary effect, evaporation.