An Investigation of the Thermal Performance of a Novel Axial Grooved Heat Pipe

Abstract

Heat pipes are devices capable of very high heat transfer and have been widely used in many thermal management applications. An experimental investigation of thermal characteristics of heat pipe with axial ‘‘Ω”-shaped grooves was presented in this paper. The effects of angle of inclination and input power on thermal performance of heat pipe were investigated, the surface tension and gravity both impacted the fluid flow in heat pipe, and which one was dominating was analyzed. Experimental results indicate that the working temperature of heat pipe, the axial temperature differences and the maximum axial temperature differences increase when increasing the input heat flux. The total thermal resistances become smaller with the input power increasing, but become bigger with the angle of inclination increasing. And the trend of the thermal coefficient of heat pipe reverses that of the total thermal resistance. The influence of gravity on thermal performance is weaker than that of the surface tension.