Effect of Vibrations on Thermal Performance of Miniature Loop Heat Pipe for Avionics Cooling: An Experimental Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Prem Kumar ◽  
Sameer Khandekar ◽  
Yuri F. Maydanik ◽  
Bishakh Bhattacharya
Keyword(s):  
Heat Pipe ◽  
Thermal Performance ◽  
Longitudinal Vibration ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Fluid Distribution ◽  
Loop Heat Pipe ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Horizontal Orientation ◽  
Acceleration Rate ◽  
Compensation Chamber

Abstract A loop heat pipe (LHP) is an efficient passive, two-phase heat transfer device which can transport heat up to large distances (over ∼ 5 m) even in the anti-gravity mode. It is necessary to miniaturize the LHPs to make them suitable for space-constrained avionics applications. However, before incorporating these devices under high-vibrational environmental conditions such as those encountered in avionics applications, it is imperative to study their thermal performance under such loads. With the aim of understanding the effect of acceleration and frequency of imposed vibration on thermal performance of miniature LHP (mLHP), a contextual experimental study has been reported here using an ammonia charged mLHP (8 mm evaporator diameter; titanium wick) in the horizontal orientation for two cases: (a) without vibration and (b) with the transverse and longitudinal harmonic vibrations (1–4g, frequencies 15–45 Hz, and sine sweep 15–45 Hz in 1 s). With start-up loads between 5 W and 8 W, the LHP can transfer heat load of about 120 W at safe evaporation temperature of 70 °C. Results show that for the transverse vibration, acceleration rate and frequency of imposed vibrations do not affect the thermal performance of mLHP. For the longitudinal vibration, the device performance gets noticeably enhanced with increased acceleration. The decisive role of heat leak (from evaporator to the compensation chamber (CC)) with imposed vibrations is clearly observed, and its link to the internal fluid distribution can be discerned from data trends.

Investigation of Loop Heat Pipe Startup Using Liquid Core Visualization

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. P. d’Entremont ◽  
J. M. Ochterbeck
Keyword(s):  
Heat Pipe ◽  
Liquid Core ◽  
High Heat ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Loop Heat Pipe ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Buoyancy Driven Flows ◽  
Compensation Chamber ◽  
Fill Level ◽  
Heat Loads

In this investigation, a Loop Heat Pipe (LHP) evaporator has been studied using a borescope inserted through the compensation chamber into the liquid core. This minimally intrusive technique allows liquid/vapor interactions to be observed throughout the liquid core and compensation chamber. A low conductivity ceramic was used for the wick and ammonia as the working fluid. Results indicate that buoyancy driven flows, both two-phase and single-phase, play essential roles in evacuating excess heat from the core, which explains the several differences in performance between horizontal and vertical orientations of the evaporator. This study also found no discernable effect of the pre-start fill level of the compensation chamber on thermal performance during startup at moderate and high heat loads.

Minimizing the Wick Thickness in a Planar Microscale Loop Heat Pipe Using Efficient Thermodynamic Design

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Navdeep S. Dhillon ◽  
Jim C. Cheng ◽  
Albert P. Pisano
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flow ◽  
Heat Pipe ◽  
Thermal Characteristics ◽  
Heat Pipes ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Loop Heat Pipe ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Loop Heat Pipes ◽  
Evaporator Section ◽  
Compensation Chamber

Theoretical and numerical thermodynamic analysis of the evaporator section of a planar microscale loop heat pipe is presented, to minimize the permissible wick thickness in such a device. In conventional cylindrical loop heat pipes, a minimum wick thickness is required in order to reduce parasitic heat flow, and prevent vapor leakage, into the compensation chamber. By taking advantage of the possibilities allowed by microfabrication techniques, a planar evaporator/compensation chamber design topology is proposed to overcome this limitation, which will enable wafer-based loop heat pipes with device thicknesses on the order of a millimeter or less. Thermodynamic principles governing two-phase flow of the working fluid in a loop heat pipe are analyzed to elucidate the fundamental requirements that would characterize the startup and steady state operation of a planar phase-change device. A three dimensional finite element thermal-fluid solver is implemented to study the thermal characteristics of the evaporator section and compensation chamber regions of a planar vertically wicking micro-columnated loop heat pipe. The use of in-plane thermal conduction barriers to reduce parasitic heat flow into the compensation chamber is demonstrated.

Multilayer Wick Structure of Loop Heat Pipe

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingjun Cai ◽  
Chung-Lung Chen ◽  
Julie F. Asfia
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Pipe ◽  
Loop Heat Pipe ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Transfer Resistance ◽  
Heat Leakage ◽  
Wick Structure ◽  
Operating Temperatures ◽  
Compensation Chamber ◽  
Two Phase Heat Transfer

Loop heat pipe (LHP) is known as a two-phase heat transfer device that utilizes the evaporation and condensation of an operating fluid to transfer heat. At the LHP low operating temperatures, heat leakage induced by saturated temperature differences between the evaporator and compensation chamber is more serious than at high operating temperatures, due to inherent thermophysical properties of the operating liquid. The serious heat leakage at the low operating temperature not only causes high liquid subcooling requirement but also leads to high total temperature difference and degraded heat transfer performance. In this paper, research efforts are placed on reducing the heat leakage by introducing a multilayer wick structure into the LHP. Based on the previous research results of LHP non-metallic wick structures, the multilayer wick LHP combines advantages of both metallic and non-metallic wick structures, retains good heat conduction from the evaporator case to the liquid/vapor interface and inhibits the reverse heat transfer from the interface to compensation chamber. By demonstrating the concept on a methanol LHP, experimental results exhibit a significant enhancement in reducing heat leakage and the total heat transfer resistance.

A Hybrid CFD-Mathematical Model for Simulation of a MEMS Loop Heat Pipe

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ghajar ◽  
J. Darabi ◽  
N. Crews
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Heat Pipe ◽  
Heat Transport ◽  
Capillary Tube ◽  
Heat Rate ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Loop Heat Pipe ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Transport Distance ◽  
Compensation Chamber

A Hybrid CFD-Mathematical (HyCoM) model was developed to predict the performance of a Micro Loop Heat Pipe (MLHP) as a function of input heat rate. A micro loop heat pipe is a passive two-phase heat transport device, consisting of microevaporator, microcondenser, micro-compensation chamber (CC), and liquid and vapor lines. A CFD model was incorporated into a loop solver code to identify heat leak to the CC. Two-phase pressure drop in the condenser was calculated by several two phase correlations and results were compared [2]. Capillary tube correlations [3] were used for pressure drop calculations in fluid lines. Effects of working fluid and change in geometry were studied. For a heat transport distance of 10 mm, the base model MLHP was 50mm long, 16mm wide and 1mm thick. In the base model, widths of the grooves, liquid and vapor lines, evaporator, and condenser were 55μm, 200μm, 750μm, 2mm, and 4mm respectively.

Operating Ranges of the Planar Loop Heat Pipe Under Non-Vacuum Conditions

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junwoo Suh ◽  
Ahmed Shuja ◽  
Praveen Medis ◽  
Srinivas Parimi ◽  
Frank M. Gerner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Pipe ◽  
Heat Dissipation ◽  
Energy Transport ◽  
Technical Conference ◽  
Open Loop ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Loop Heat Pipe ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Vapor Line ◽  
Compensation Chamber

As the trend of high throughput in small packages continues, the heat dissipation becomes a very critical design issue in electronic devices and spacecrafts. The two phase loop heat pipe utilizes the latent heat of working fluid. It consists of an evaporator, compensation chamber, condenser, and liquid and vapor line. The primary wick used as a core part to circulate the working fluid is located in the evaporator. The planar loop heat pipe uses coherent porous silicon (CPS) wick as opposed to the conventional cylindrical configuration, which uses a sintered amorphous metal wick. The clear evaporator machined from Pyrex glass and transparent silicone tubes were utilized to monitor the complex phenomena which occur in the evaporator. Tests were conducted under the non-vacuum condition without a secondary wick. DI-water was used as a working fluid. Like an open loop test previously conducted, there was an operating range in which the liquid could be properly pumped from the compensation chamber to the vapor line under the pumping motion. In this device, more than 6 Watts could be convected from the evaporator to the ambient. Therefore circulation was not observed until powers greater than 6 Watts. There was a circulation of working fluid occurring due to energy transport within the loop when the input power was from 7.94 Watts to 17.6 Watts. The quantity of heat transportation to the loop was calculated by acquiring the empirical heat transfer coefficient. From this calculation it was found that, roughly, 12.1 Watts was transported to the loop and 5.51 Watts was convected to the ambient from the evaporator itself when the applied power was 15.27 Watts.   This paper was also originally published as part of the Proceedings of the ASME 2005 Pacific Rim Technical Conference and Exhibition on Integration and Packaging of MEMS, NEMS, and Electronic Systems.

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