variavel0=<b>HUMBERTO ARAUJO MACHADO</b> - machado@univap.br UNIVAP
<b>Abstract.</b> In capillary and micro heat pipes the internal porous media is replaced by a capillary groove, yielding a meniscus formed  by the liquid phase. The meniscus height varies along the groove length, from the condenser section to the evaporator section, and  the difference between  the pressures  in each extremity  is responsible for pumping the liquid. Such devices have been employed in  electronic  cooling,  due  its  small  dimensions.  This  system  provides  excellent  thermal  control,  assuring  uniform  temperature  distribution.  In previous works related  to capillary heat pipe simulation, empirical or simple 1-D models have been used, but not  taking into account the complete unsteady phenomena. In this work, the physical model and the 2-D unsteady simulation of a flat  capillary two-dimensional meniscus is presented. The phase change problem of a heated liquid meniscus in a groove is simulated via  an interface tracking method, which is an hybrid Lagrangean-Eulerian method for moving boundary simulation. A variation of the  one-dimensional  Stephan  problem  is  used  to  validate  the  numerical  code. The  presented method may  be  extended  easily  to  3-D  processes for any groove geometry.
<b>Keywords.</b> Capillary meniscus, Interface tracking, Phase change, Moving boundary.