Effect of non-condensable gas on startup of a loop thermosyphon

Abstract

Non-condensable gas (NCG) generated inside two-phase heat transfer devices can adversely affect the thermal performance and limit the lifetime of such devices. In this work, experimental investigation of the effect of NCG on the startup of an ammonia–stainless steel loop thermosyphon was conducted. In the experiment, nitrogen was injected into the loop thermosyphon as NCG. The effect of NCG inventory on the startup behavior was investigated by adjusting the injected amount of nitrogen. The experimental results reveal that NCG prolongs the startup time and increases the startup liquid superheat and temperature overshoot; the more NCG exists in the loop thermosyphon, the higher the liquid superheat and temperature overshoot. When NCG is present in the system, boiling usually occurs in the evaporator before startup, but it does not mean the system will start up instantly, which differs from the conditions without NCG. Under all the conditions, increasing the heat load can effectively shorten the startup time but leads to a large temperature overshoot; forced convection cooling of the condenser has almost no effect on shortening the startup time especially for large NCG inventory situations, but it can effectively limit the temperature overshoot. For large NCG inventory situations, the loop thermosyphon can start up at a small heat load (5 W) or even without a heat load when the condenser is cooled by forced convection of ethanol. No failed startups occurred during any of the tests.