Non-linear analyses of temperature oscillations in a closed-loop pulsating heat pipe

In this paper, the chaotic behavior of wall temperature oscillations in a closed-loop pulsating heat pipe was investigated using non-linear analyses on temperature data. The tested heat pipe, consisting of 5 turns, was made of copper capillary tube and had an internal diameter of 2 mm. Ethanol was selected as the working fluid with filling ratios (FR) of 30%, 50% and 70%. Wall temperature fluctuations were recorded under three different heating power inputs of 37, 60, and 87 W. Various methods, including pseudo-phase-plane trajectories, correlation dimensions (D_E), Lyapunov exponents, and recurrence plots, were used to analyze the non-linear dynamics characteristics of temperature oscillation data. Three types of attractors were identified under different power inputs. All of the calculated positive largest Lyapunov exponents were found to be less than 0.1, demonstrating the weak chaos characteristics of the pulsating heat pipe. The increase of the power input augments the correlation dimensions and contributes to the improvement of the thermal performance of the pulsating heat pipe. For each power input, the correlation dimensions have the trend of D_E,FR=50% > D_E,FR=70% > D_E,FR=30%, and the best thermal performance was obtained at 50% filling ratio. At least four independent variables are required in order to describe the heat transfer characteristics of a PHP. The average time of the temperature oscillation stability loss, i.e., the inverse of the largest Lyapunov exponent, decreases as the power input increases. In the recurrence plots, chaotic states were observed. The Recurrence Quantification Analysis indicates larger values of the order-2 Renyi entropies K₂ at the evaporation section than at the condensation section. Moreover, the trend that K_2,Q=87W > K_2,Q=60W > K_2,Q=37W at each filling ratio both for T_e4 and T_c4 collaborating with the positive, finite largest Lyapunov exponent gives a hint of the maximum entropy self-organization process of the temperature oscillations with the increase of power input.     

Numerical analysis of heat and mass transfer in the capillary structure of a loop heat pipe

The heat and mass transfer in the capillary porous structure of a loop heat pipe (LHP) is numerically studied and the LHP boiling limit is investigated. The mass, momentum and energy equations are solved numerically using the finite element method for an evaporator cross section. When a separate vapor region is formed inside the capillary structure, the shape of the free boundary is calculated by satisfying the mass and energy balance conditions at the interface. The superheat limits in the capillary structure are estimated by using the cluster nucleation theory. An explanation is provided for the robustness of LHPs to the boiling limit.     

平板型环路热管温度波动现象研究

环路热管(loop heat pipe,LHP)是一种靠蒸发器内毛细芯产生毛细力驱动回路运行,利用工质相变来传递热量的高效传热装置.研制了一套小型平板式蒸发器、风冷式冷凝器的环路热管(mLHP),mLHP的毛细芯为500目不锈钢丝网,工质为丙酮和甲醇.蒸发器、冷凝器以及所有管路均由紫铜制成.着重研究了平板型mLHP在不同热负荷条件下的温度波动特性.实验结果表明,平板式mLHP在某些热流密度区间容易发生温度波动;同时,重点研究了工质对mLHP系统温度波动的影响,并给出相应的合理解释.     

Design of miniature loop heat pipe

In the present study, the loop heat pipe (LHP) was miniaturized for application to electronic cooling. According to the capillary limitation, the wick structure parameters that would affect the heat transfer capacity were analyzed theoretically. Among the various wick parameters, this study especially investigated the effect of wick thickness, which has rarely been mentioned in the literature. Here, various thicknesses were analyzed theoretically and then tested experimentally. The results showed that the temperature on the evaporator wall dropped with decreasing wick thickness. This effect would lead to the raising of heat transfer capacity and the descending of thermal resistance. According to the analysis and the practical demand for electronic cooling, a miniature LHP was fabricated with the evaporator outer diameter of 13 mm and the evaporator length of 50 mm. The testing results showed that, at the allowable working temperature of 80 °C, the maximum heat transfer capacity was up to 200 W and the thermal resistance was 0.17 °C/W. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 33(1): 42–52, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.10133     

回路热管的热力特性分析

对回路热管稳定运行的动力和热力特性进行了分析,指出整个循环要顺利完成,主毛细芯产生的毛细压差必须具备的条件以及换热条件.并进而在合理的简化和假设条件下,对该热管建立了热力分析数学模型.用简单的代数运算代替了复杂的微积分计算,在精确度要求不高时,能够简便快速的进行热力分析.应用所提模型和计算方法对两个给定的回路热管进行了热力分析,得出了关键节点的压力、温度,分析了工作温度、环境温度和毛细芯厚度等对回路热管传热性能的影响.     

Numerical simulation of transient heat and mass transfer in a cylindrical evaporator of a loop heat pipe

The paper investigates the transient processes of heat and mass transfer in a cylindrical evaporator of a loop heat pipe (LHP) during the device start-up. One of the most “arduous” prestart situations, which is characterized by the absence of a liquid in the evaporator central core and filled vapor removal channels, has been considered. With such liquid distribution a successful start-up of an LHP becomes possible only after formation of the vapor phase in the vapor removal channels and their liberation from the liquid. The aim of the investigations is to determine conditions that ensure the boiling-up of a working fluid in vapor removal channels. The problem was solved by a numerical method. Simulation of start-up regimes has been performed for different heat loads and different structural materials of the evaporator. Copper, titanium and nickel wick have been examined. Calculations have been made for three different working fluids; water, ammonia and acetone. Account has been taken of the conditions of heat exchange between the compensation chamber and surrounding medium.     

Investigation of pulsations of the operating temperature in a miniature loop heat pipe

During the operation of miniature loop heat pipes (LHPs) one can observe pulsations of the operating temperature, which depend on the amount of the working fluid, the device orientation in the gravity field and the conditions of the condenser cooling. Intense pulsations, whose amplitude may exceed tens of degrees, arise from the lack of a working fluid in a LHP when a hot condensate or vapor bubbles periodically penetrate into the compensation chamber (CC) and act on the vapor phase in it, increasing its temperature and volume. Changes in the external conditions, for instance, the LHP arrangement in an unfavourable orientation or a more intensive cooling of the condenser with respect to the conditions for which the filling volume was optimal, also contribute to the initiation of intense pulsations of the operating temperature. In both cases one can observe redistribution of the working fluid between the condenser and the CC, as the result of which the liquid phase volume in the latter decreases and overshoots of vapor or a hot condensate there become possible.     

长距离环路热管传热性能实验研究

基于航空航天等领域对环路热管长距离传热的需求,设计制造了一套传热距离8.1m的圆柱型蒸发器环路热管,试验了不同加热功率、不同冷凝温度下该环路热管的启动和变工况运行性能,并对其热阻及最大传热能力进行了分析。研究结果表明：当其他条件一致、初始气液分布相同和不同时,加热功率由100W增大至160W后,本研究中的环路热管启动时间和启动温升均发生一定程度的下降;加热功率100W时,冷凝温度由10℃降低至-10℃使得环路热管启动时间增加,加热功率160W时,冷凝温度由10℃降至-10℃对环路热管的启动时间影响不大。在冷凝温度0℃下,该环路热管在100~500W范围内均能稳定运行,且200W时环路热管传热效率最高,传热温差最小,稳定运行温度最低;另外,由于系统传输距离较长,每个工况达到稳定所需要的时间也较长,分布于1000至3500S内。随着加热功率的增大,环路热管热阻先减小后逐渐增大,该环路热管传热热阻最大不超过0.09℃/W,最小为0.024℃/W;随着传热距离的增大,管路的热损失增加,总压降和热阻也变大。当传热距离基本相同时,蒸发器容积的大小、冷凝器的冷凝能力及气液管线的布置形状均在一定程度上影响环路热管的最大传热能力。     

Study on heat transfer performance for loop heat pipe with circular flat evaporator

A loop heat pipe (LHP) with a circular flat evaporator was designed for cooling electronic devices. The flat evaporator with an outside diameter of 41 mm and a thickness of 15 mm was developed with a copper powder wick. The developed evaporator was examined to improve insufficient subcooling of liquid in a compensation chamber, which decreases an operating limitation of the LHP. Many different orientations of the elevation and direction of the evaporator were also considered during all of the experiments for this system. The active heating area was 3 cm × 3 cm, and water was used in the tests. This LHP generated a heat load in excess of 140 W with a total thermal resistance of 0.39 °C/W.     

Influence of nanofluid on heat transfer in a loop heat pipe

Experiments are conducted to investigate heat transfer characteristics of using nanofluid in a Loop Heat Pipe (LHP) as a working medium for heat input range from 20 W to 100 W. The experiments are carried out by manufacturing the LHP, in which the setup consists of a water tank with pump, a flat evaporator, condenser installed with two pieces of fans, two transportation lines (vapor and liquid lines), copper pipe sections for attachment of the thermocouples and power supply. The uniqueness of the current experimental setup is the vapor and liquid lines of LHP which are made of transparent plastic tube to visualize the fluid flow patterns. In this study, the LHP performance using silica (SiO₂–H₂O) nanofluid with particle volume fraction of 3% which was used as a coolant is examined. The experimental results are verified by simulation using Finite Element Method (FEM). The LHP performance is evaluated in terms of transient temperature distribution and total thermal resistance (R_t). R_t is estimated for both LHP using SiO₂–H₂O nanofluid and pure water cases under a steady state condition. The results reveal the average decrease of 28%–44% at heat input ranging from 20 W to 100 W in total thermal resistance of LHP using SiO₂–H₂O nanofluid as compared with pure water. Therefore, the presence of nanoparticles could greatly enhance the cooling of LHP. The experimental and simulation results are found in good agreement.     

Modeling and analysis of startup of a loop heat pipe

The startup behavior of a loop heat pipe (LHP) is one of the key aspects in evaluating its working performance. A mathematical model of the startup process of a LHP is established based on the node network method in this work. A parametric analysis on the startup characteristics of the LHP is conducted, where the effects of startup heat load, thermal capacity of the evaporator and compensation chamber, heat sink temperature, ambient temperature, heat leak from the evaporator to the compensation chamber and cooling on the compensation chamber on the startup characteristics of the LHP are evaluated, which contributes to the improvement of the LHP startup performance.     

Operating characteristics of a miniature cryogenic loop heat pipe

Aiming at future space applications, a miniature cryogenic loop heat pipe (CLHP) with nitrogen as the working fluid was designed, whose condenser could provide the interface with the cold finger of cryocooler, and its operating characteristics were experimentally investigated in this work. Based on the experimental results, important conclusions below have been drawn: (1) with only 2.5 W applied to the secondary evaporator, the CLHP can realize the supercritical startup, and the larger the heat load applied to the secondary evaporator, the sooner the temperature drop process of the primary evaporator; (2) when the heat load applied to the primary evaporator is no less than 3 W, the primary evaporator can operate independently; whereas when it is smaller than 3 W, the secondary evaporator must be kept in operation to assist the normal operation of the primary evaporator; (3) the CLHP has a heat transport capacity of 12 W × 0.56 m, and its thermal resistance decreases with the increase of the heat load applied to the primary evaporator; (4) the CLHP has the ability to operate with a small heat load applied to the primary evaporator for a long time, and manifests good thermal control performance.     

LHP圆盘式蒸发器三维传热与流动分析

通过补充相变蒸发界面传热传质热力学关系式,构建了回路热管(loop heat pipe,LHP)圆盘式蒸发器的流动与传热多区域耦合分析三维数学物理模型,并基于FLUENT软件对某种甲醇-不锈钢平板型蒸发器内的流动与传热情况进行了数值求解。数值分析结果表明,蒸发器内的传热与流动受几何结构影响明显,表现出较强的方向差异;不同热负荷条件下,补偿腔内流体的流动与传热特性呈现出较大差别,受到回流液速度和温度、毛细芯界面蒸发质量流量、毛细芯反向导热和侧壁漏热等多种因素共同影响。计算方法和研究结果,可以为平板型蒸发器内流动与传热特性的定量分析提供依据。     

Analysis of the parameters of the sintered loop heat pipe

The purpose of this paper is to establish an experimental formula for sintered dendritic nickel powder. For this reason, wick structures with different porosity ranging from 65 to 80% were fabricated by cold pressing sintering process at fixed porosity and their parameters that included porosity, pore radius, and permeability were also measured. According to both the capillary limitation and the present experimental formula of the sintered dendritic nickel powder, the wick structure parameters that would affect the heat transfer capacity of the loop heat pipe (LHP) were analyzed theoretically and then investigated experimentally. The results showed that there exists an optimal combination of wick structure parameters by which the performance of the LHP would achieve optimization. The maximum heat transfer capacity was up to 500 W and the thermal resistance was 0.12^°C/W at the allowable working temperature 80^°C. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 33(8): 515–526, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20034     

Mathematical modeling of steady-state operation of a loop heat pipe

A steady-state mathematical model of a loop heat pipe is established and compared with experimental results in this work. The modeling of the evaporator wick includes not only the single-layer wick, but also the two-layer compound wick. The annular flow model is adopted in the modeling of the condenser, in which the effect of surface tension of liquid and the interaction between the liquid and vapor phases including both frictional and momentum-transfer shear stresses are considered. The model can predict the decreasing length of the condenser two-phase zone under the constant conductance mode caused by the volume expansion of the liquid in the compensation chamber, and is in good agreement with the experimental data. It also shows that the application of the two-layer compound wick can improve the performance of the loop heat pipe operating under the variable conductance mode, due to the reduction of heat leak from the evaporator to the compensation chamber. A parametric study of the effect of heat sink temperature, ambient temperature, adverse elevation, and working fluid inventory on the operating temperatures of the loop heat pipe is also conducted, which further contributes to the understanding of the steady-state operating characteristics of loop heat pipes.     

Numerical study of heat pipe application in heat recovery systems

Heat pipes are two-phase heat transfer devices with extremely high effective thermal conductivity. They can be cylindrical or planar in structure. Heat pipes can be embedded in a metal cooling plate, which is attached to the heat source, and can also be assembled with a fin stack for fluid heat transfer. Due to the high heat transport capacity, heat exchangers with heat pipes have become much smaller than traditional heat exchangers in handling high heat fluxes. With the working fluid in a heat pipe, heat can be absorbed on the evaporator region and transported to the condenser region where the vapour condenses releasing the heat to the cooling media. Heat pipe technology has found increasing applications in enhancing the thermal performance of heat exchangers in microelectronics, energy and other industrial sectors.Utilisation of a heat pipe fin stack in the drying cycle of domestic appliances for heat recovery may lead to a significant energy saving in the domestic sector. However, the design of the heat pipe heat exchanger will meet a number of challenges. This paper presents a design method by using CFD simulation of the dehumidification process with heat pipe heat exchangers. The strategies of simulating the process with heat pipes are presented. The calculated results show that the method can be further used to optimise the design of the heat pipe fin stack. The study suggests that CFD modelling is able to predict thermal performance of the dehumidification solution with heat pipe heat exchangers.     

Experimental investigation of a dual compensation chamber loop heat pipe

This work performs a fundamental study of a Dual Compensation Chamber Loop Heat Pipe (DCCLHP) through partial visualization of the flow phenomenon inside its compensation chambers and the condenser. Both startup and steady-state performance of the DCCLHP and the influence of initial vapor–liquid distribution, startup heat load, heat sink temperature and relative orientations on the performance of the DCCLHP are studied. The result shows a typical ‘V’ curve operation temperature at heat loads over 50 W at the steady-state, and reveals some unique phenomena during the startup of the DCCLHP such as bubble generation in the liquid core, reverse flow, fluctuated flow and liquid re-distribution between the compensation chambers and the external loop, which are caused mainly by the radial heat leak from the evaporator. Some unstable phenomena during the startup, steady-state operation and unloading period of the DCCLHP are also revealed in this study including temperature fluctuations, temperature hysteresis and transient penetration of vapor.     

Study on start-up characteristics of loop heat pipe under low-power

A series of experiments based on a flat loop heat pipe under low-power have been conducted in this work. It is found that the LHP can start up unfailingly under low heat power (Q = 6 W) and its thermal resistance is rather high in some cases of low-power. With the thickness of the sintered capillary interlayer increasing, the performance of start-up in the LHP becomes better because heat leak to compensation chamber is reduced and the temperature difference between compensation chamber and the evaporation room is increased. When compensation chamber in the LHP has a heat sink installed, the temperature difference and pressure difference between compensation chamber and evaporation room are augmented. As a result, it is beneficial to the improvement of start-up characteristics.     

Evaporative heat transfer model of a loop heat pipe with bidisperse wick structure

A mathematical model of evaporative heat transfer in a loop heat pipe was developed and compared with experiments. The steady-state thermal performance was predicted for different sintered nickel wicks, including monoporous and bidisperse structures. The effect of wick pore size distribution on heat transfer was taken into consideration. The wick in the evaporator was assumed to possess three regions during vaporization from an applied heat load: a vapor blanket, a two-phase region, and a saturated liquid region. The evaporator wall temperature and the total thermal resistance at different heat loads were predicted using ammonia as the working fluid. The predictions showed distinct heat transfer characteristics and higher performance for the bidisperse wick in contrast with monoporous wick. A bidisperse wick was able to decrease the thickness of the vapor blanket region, which presents a thermal resistance and causes lower heat transfer capacity of the evaporator. Additionally, a validation test presented good agreement with the experiments.