Bypass line assisted start-up of a loop heat pipe with a flat evaporator

Abstract

Loop heat pipes often experience start-up problems especially under low thermal loads. A bypass line was installed between the evaporator and the liquid reservoir to alleviate the difficulties associated with start-up of a loop heat pipe with flat evaporator. The evaporator and condenser had dimensions of 40 mm (W) by 50 mm (L). The wall and tube materials were stainless steel and the working fluid was methanol. Axial grooves were provided in the flat evaporator to serve as vapor passages. The inner diameters of liquid and vapor transport lines were 2 mm and 4 mm, respectively, and the length of the two lines was 0.5 m each. The thermal load range was up to 130 W for horizontal alignment with the condenser temperature of 10°C. The experimental results showed that the minimum thermal load for start-up was lowered by 37% when the bypass line was employed.