Experimental investigation of forced convective heat transfer and fluid flow in a mini heat pipe with rectangular micro grooves

Abstract

In the present study, the convective heat transfer coefficient of water in a laminar flow regime under constant inlet temperature conditions inside a flat mini heat pipe was investigated ex-perimentally. Heat flux ranged from 20-50W and various horizontal heat sink temperatures (operating temperature) ranged from 15-35°C with liquid flow rate (3.563E-8 m3/sec) used during the experiments. The rectangular microchannels performance is evaluated in terms of the temperature profile, heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number and thermal resistance. The results emphasized that the mini heat pipe temperature gradients are less than the tempera-ture of the copper plate and the heat resistance gradually decreases to its lowest value when the heat flux value reaches its highest value if it does not exceed the capillary limits. The data also demonstrated that the coefficient of heat transfer in the condensation zone is lower than in the evaporation zone at different heat sink temperatures. The augmentation rate for the flat mini heat pipe thermal conductivity reached about 240% at a heat load 30W for the positions of thermosyphon and horizontal, while the rate of increase in the case of the anti-gravity situ-ation at a heat load 30W reaches 210%, then the improvement percentage begins to decrease to 200%. A generalized regression equation is developed for the estimation of the Nusselt number valid for water in a flat mini heat pipe.