Investigation on the effect of thermal properties by changing geometry of a heat pipe using simulation

Abstract

A heat pipe is a two-phase device with a very high effective thermal conductivity and heat transfer rate. It consists of a phase change material, wick structure and an envelope. Usually, the heat pipes are circular in shape. In this paper, we analyze different shapes of the heat pipe and how it affects the performance of the pipe without changing its internal volume and central thickness. Flow property of the phase change material changes with geometry. The fluid velocity is minimum at the pipe surface and maximum at the pipe centre because of the no-slip condition. We have selected one circular and two flat geometries with a different number of edges. The advantage of flat geometry is an increased surface area of contact. ANSYS simulation softwareis used to simulate the working of the heat pipe. Several performance parameters including pressure, velocity, temperature and effective thermal conductivity were calculated and compared. The effect of an increase in the number of edges on different performance aspects of the heat pipe is studied. From the results of simulation software, it is observed that the change in geometry affects the thermal properties significantly.