A Comprehensive Experimental Investigation of the Performance of Closed-Loop Pulsating Heat Pipes

Abstract

Closed-loop pulsating heat pipes (CLPHPs) are a new type of two-phase heat transfer devices that can transfer considerable heat in a small space via two-phase vapor and liquid pulsating flow and work with various types of two-phase instabilities so the operating mechanism of CLPHP is not well understood. In this work, two CLPHPs, made of Pyrex, were manufactured to observe and investigate the flow regime that occurs during the operation of CLPHP and thermal performance of the device under different laboratory conditions. In general, various working fluids were used in filling ratios of 40%, 50%, and 60% in horizontal and vertical modes to investigate the effect of thermo-physical parameters, filling ratio, nanoparticles, gravity, CLPHP structure, and input heat flux on the thermal performance of CLPHP. The results indicate that three types of flow regime may be observed given laboratory conditions. Each flow regime exerts a different effect on the thermal performance of the device. There is an optimal filling ratio for each working fluid. The increased number of turns in CLPHP generally improves the thermal performance of the system reducing the effect of the type of the working fluid on the aforementioned performance. The adoption of copper nanoparticles, which positively affect fluid motion, decreases the thermal resistance of the system as much as 6.06–42.76% depending on laboratory conditions. Moreover, gravity brings about positive changes in the flow regime decreasing thermal resistance as much as 32.13–52.58%.