Experimental and Numerical investigation on enhancement in thermal characteristics of Sintered Copper wick Heat pipe using deionized water as fluid

Abstract

The enhancement in heat transfer characteristics of a copper sintered wick heat pipe with DI water is experimentally and numerically studied, for 15° tilt angle, having 15.88 mm external diameter, 14 mm internal diameter and 565 mm long. The effect of heat input and flow rate on the heat pipe thermal resistance, heat transfer coefficient in evaporator and condenser sections and thermal efficiency are investigated. The experimental results are evaluated for the surface temperatures of evaporator and condenser sections, flow rate conditions also measured at the condenser of heat pipe. Interestingly, a temperature difference of 4.2 C is observed between the heat pipe condenser and the evaporator section. The results showed maximum temperature obtained at the evaporator and minimum temperature obtained at the condenser section because heat input is applied at the evaporator section and cooling is provided at the condenser section. The absolute temperature and thermal resistances of both evaporator and condenser sections are observed that experimental values greater than the numerical, because in experimentation the convection losses occurs. The obtained thermal resistances are very close to zero showing that low thermal resistance, the higher will be the heat transfer. It is observed that the variation of efficiency with power input is decreases. As the heat input is increases the efficiency values are decreasing because of convection losses. Heat pipes are common in many application fields like Aerospace, Electrical and Electronic equipment, Medicine and Human body temperature control and Transport systems and deicing.