Experimental Study on the Heat Transfer Enhancement of Oscillating-Flow Heat Pipe by Acoustic Cavitation

Abstract

Experimental investigations on the heat transfer characteristics of an oscillating-flow heat pipe with acoustic cavitation in comparison with the ordinary oscillating-flow heat pipe are given in this article. The experimental results showed that the heat transfer rate of an oscillating-flow heat pipe with an acoustic cavitation field imposed on the evaporator section was higher than that without a cavitation field by 8–24.5%. It has been proved that acoustic cavitation can enhance the heat transfer performance of an oscillating-flow heat pipe. However, for the case of acoustic cavitation applied on the condenser section, not all ultrasonic fields applied were effective, and the heat transfer rate increased from −39 to 77%. Further discussion on the experimental results is provided.