Numerical Analysis of Effects of Surface Tension and Viscosity on 3 Dimensional Pulsating Heat Pipe

Abstract

Since the development of Pulsating Heat Pipe (PHP), it has gained a lot of attention in the field of thermal management. Flow inside multi-turn PHP is dominated by the capillary action mostly driven by the surface tension and drag force. Cetyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (CTAC) surfactant solution has lower surface tension and higher viscosity values compared to water, its base fluid. Experimental results have proven that the thermal resistance of PHP has increased its thermal performance at higher fill ratios and higher heat input, however the operational mechanism is not yet understood. Vapor formation, its movement and flow pattern of phases of working fluid can be well analyzed by the computational approach. In this paper, results of numerical analysis of 3-D PHP with working fluids that has values of surface tension and viscosity equal to that of 2000 ppm of CTAC are presented to validate the experimental results, thereby explain the thermodynamic reason of decreased thermal resistance. Moreover, the reasons for degraded performance of PHP with CTAC solutions at lower fill ratio and lower heat inputs are explained based on the vapor generation and flow of liquid-vapor inside the capillary tube. The numerical investigation was carried out for the case of 35%, 50% and 65% Fill Ratios (FR) at heat supply of 20, 30, 40 and 50 Watts. Lower surface tension promoted the phase change by rapid formation of vapor from liquid phase. Higher viscosity decreased the velocity of the fluid within the pipe. Influence of surface tension and viscosity on the thermal performance of PHP varied with different fill ratios and heat input.