Lorenz-like equation of two-phase flow in a single closed loop pulsating heat pipe

Abstract

The pulsating heat transfer characteristics of pulsating heat pipes are often obtained through a large number of experiments and numerical simulations, and the results have certain errors and uncertainties. In order to deal with this situation, the theoretical model of pulsating heat pipe was studied. Based on the governing equation of a single closed loop pulsating heat pipe with two-phase flow containing latent heat, the theoretical model of Lorenz-like equation was derived firstly, and the variation rules of chaotic characteristic such as attractor and Lyapunov index were obtained. On the basis, the parameters of a single closed loop pulsating heat pipe were optimized. The results show that the model of a single closed loop pulsating heat pipe approach to chaos when the Rayleigh number reaches about 3, and the chaos characteristic increases gradually with the increase of heating power. At the same time, the optimal structure parameters and liquid filling rate of a single closed loop pulsating heat pipe under specific conditions were predicted, which provides a theoretical basis for further exploring the optimal heat transfer performance of pulsating heat pipe.