Improvements of gravity assisted wickless heat pipes

The performance of conventional gravity assisted heat pipes and modified heat pipes with a separator in the adiabatic section is investigated experimentally. Heat pipes with a three layered wick in the evaporator section, in addition to the separator, are investigated. The performance of the modified heat pipes was compared to a reference gravity assisted heat pipe. Experiments were conducted on heat pipes of three lengths with a common diameter at constant evaporator and condenser lengths. The effect of varying the adiabatic length was, thus, investigated distinctly in normal heat pipes and in modified heat pipes with a separator. Water was employed as the working fluid in all heat pipes. The experimental program included five inclination angles and a heat flux range form 5 to 32 kW/m². The presence of the adiabatic separator caused a marked improvement in all heat pipes tested for all lengths and inclination angles. A pronounced reduction in heat pipe evaporator temperature was obtained, which is accompanied by an improvement in the heat transfer coefficient. A correlation was developed for prediction of the heat transfer coefficient for gravity assisted heat pipes with an adiabatic separator. The correlation took into consideration the effect of the varying adiabatic length. The correlation was in good agreement with the experimental data.