A Numerical Study of Pulsating Heat Pipe Performance

Author(s):  
Brian P. d’Entremont ◽  
John R. Thome

A pulsating heat pipe (PHP), also known as an oscillating heat pipe (OHP), is a passive thermal transport device which consists of a single meandering microchannel making multiple passes each through an evaporator and condenser. With a sufficient number of such passes, intermittent boiling of liquid slugs within each evaporator pass perturbs flow in adjacent channels leaving the device in a perpetually unstable state of oscillation. A PHP is thus distinguished operationally from a loop thermosyphon by having a motive force other than buoyancy and the ability to operate in all gravitational orientations. The most successful PHP models to date track liquid slug motion, sensible heating of the slugs, and mass transfer between liquid slugs and vapor plugs due to evaporation and condensation. However, the predictive capabilities of PHP models remain poor and the numbers assigned to evaporation and condensation heat transfer coefficients are generally not well justified by any realistic physical process. The current study applies methods consistent with state of the art prediction methods in microchannel boiling, to obtain results which predict the PHP’s heat transfer performance and the effect of gravitational orientation on performance.

Author(s):  
Jiajun Xu ◽  
Yuwen Zhang ◽  
H. B. Ma

Liquid-vapor oscillating flow and heat transfer in a vertically placed oscillating heat pipe (OHP) with a sintered particle wick structure inside are analyzed in this paper. The evaporation and condensation heat transfer coefficients are obtained by solving the microfilm evaporation and condensation on the sintered particles. The sensible heat transfer between the liquid slug and the channel wall are obtained by analytical solution or empirical correlations, depending on whether the liquid flow is laminar or turbulent. The effects of the maximum evaporation and condensation angles on the oscillatory flow, as well as sensible and latent heat transfer are analyzed.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiajun Xu ◽  
Yuwen Zhang ◽  
Hongbin Ma

Liquid-vapor oscillating flow and heat transfer in a vertically placed oscillating heat pipe (OHP) with a sintered particle wick structure are analyzed in this paper. The oscillatory flow of the liquid slug is driven by the variations in pressures in the vapor plug due to evaporation and condensation. The evaporation and condensation heat transfer coefficients are obtained by solving the microfilm evaporation and condensation on the sintered particles. The sensible heat transfer between the liquid slug and the channel wall are obtained by analytical solution or empirical correlations depending on whether the liquid flow is laminar or turbulent. The effects of the sintered particles wick structure on the oscillatory flow, as well as sensible and latent heat transfer, are analyzed and compared with the results without wick structure. A parametric study on the oscillatory flow and heat transfer in the OHP with sintered particle wick structure is also performed.


1983 ◽  
Vol 105 (4) ◽  
pp. 862-869 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. S. Amano ◽  
M. K. Jensen ◽  
P. Goel

An experimental and numerical study is reported on heat transfer in the separated flow region created by an abrupt circular pipe expansion. Heat transfer coefficients were measured along the pipe wall downstream from an expansion for three different expansion ratios of d/D = 0.195, 0.391, and 0.586 for Reynolds numbers ranging from 104 to 1.5 × 105. The results are compared with the numerical solutions obtained with the k ∼ ε turbulence model. In this computation a new finite difference scheme is developed which shows several advantages over the ordinary hybrid scheme. The study also covers the derivation of a new wall function model. Generally good agreement between the measured and the computed results is shown.


Author(s):  
Bingran Li ◽  
Cunliang Liu ◽  
Lin Ye ◽  
Huiren Zhu ◽  
Fan Zhang

Abstract To investigate the application of ribbed cross-flow coolant channels with film hole effusion and the effects of the internal cooling configuration on film cooling, experimental and numerical studies are conducted on the effect of the relative position of the film holes and different orientation ribs on the film cooling performance. Three cases of the relative position of the film holes and different orientation ribs (post-rib, centered, and pre-rib) in two ribbed cross-flow channels (135° and 45° orientation ribs) are investigated. The film cooling performances are measured under three blowing ratios by the transient liquid crystal measurement technique. A RANS simulation with the realizable k-ε turbulence model and enhanced wall treatment is performed. The results show that the cooling effectiveness and the downstream heat transfer coefficient for the 135° rib are basically the same in the three position cases, and the differences between the local effectiveness average values for the three are no more than 0.04. The differences between the heat transfer coefficients are no more than 0.1. The “pre-rib” and “centered” cases are studied for the 45° rib, and the position of the structures has little effect on the film cooling performance. In the different position cases, the outlet velocity distribution of the film holes, the jet pattern and the discharge coefficient are consistent with the variation in the cross flow. The related research previously published by the authors showed that the inclination of the ribs with respect to the holes affects the film cooling performance. This study reveals that the relative positions of the ribs and holes have little effect on the film cooling performance. This paper expands and improves the study of the effect of the internal cooling configuration on film cooling and makes a significant contribution to the design and industrial application of the internal cooling channel of a turbine blade.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avik Saha ◽  
Arup Kumar Das

Abstract Pool boiling around a heated cylinder having a diameter larger than the departure diameter of bubbles has been simulated numerically. Thermally uniform heat flux condition has been maintained at the outer surface of the cylinder, submerged at saturated water at atmospheric pressure. Using the Volume of Fluid type framework of liquid phase fraction in the domain, bubble life cycle around the horizontal cylinder has been analyzed to understand different stages of growth, sliding, merging prior to departure. An effort has also been made to characterize the bubble population, emerging from different sites over the cylindrical surface. The influence of cylinder inclination along its axis on these interfacial features has also been discussed using representative numerical simulation. Temperature profiles of the cylinder surface have been portrayed for both horizontal and inclined situations before presenting respective heat transfer coefficients.


Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Yanfei Liu ◽  
Xiaotian Han ◽  
Chaoqun Shen ◽  
Feng Yao ◽  
Mengchen Zhang

A vapor chamber can meet the cooling requirements of high heat flux electronic equipment. In this paper, based on a proposed vapor chamber with a side window, a vapor chamber experimental system was designed to visually study its evaporation and condensation heat transfer performance. Using infrared thermal imaging technology, the temperature distribution and the vapor–liquid two-phase interface evolution inside the cavity were experimentally observed. Furthermore, the evaporation and condensation heat transfer coefficients were obtained according to the measured temperature of the liquid near the evaporator surface and the vapor near the condenser surface. The effects of heat load and filling rate on the thermal resistance and the evaporation and condensation heat transfer coefficients are analyzed and discussed. The results indicate that the liquid filling rate that maximized the evaporation heat transfer coefficient was different from the liquid filling rate that maximized the condensation heat transfer coefficient. The vapor chamber showed good heat transfer performance with a liquid filling rate of 33%. According to the infrared thermal images, it was observed that the evaporation/boiling heat transfer could be strengthened by the interference of easily broken bubbles and boiling liquid. When the heat input increased, the uniformity of temperature distribution was improved due to the intensified heat transfer on the evaporator surface.


2000 ◽  
Vol 122 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Holtzman ◽  
R. W. Hill ◽  
K. S. Ball

A numerical study of natural convection in an isosceles triangular enclosure with a heated horizontal base and cooled upper walls is presented. Nearly every previous study conducted on this subject to date has assumed that the geometric plane of symmetry is also a plane of symmetry for the flow. This problem is re-examined over aspect ratios ranging from 0.2 to 1.0 and Grashof numbers from 103 to 105. It is found that a pitchfork bifurcation occurs at a critical Grashof number for each of the aspect ratios considered, above which the symmetric solutions are unstable to finite perturbations and asymmetric solutions are instead obtained. Results are presented detailing the occurrence of the pitchfork bifurcation in each of the aspect ratios considered, and the resulting flow patterns are described. A flow visualization study is used to validate the numerical observations. Computed local and mean heat transfer coefficients are also presented and compared with results obtained when flow symmetry is assumed. Differences in local values of the Nusselt number between asymmetric and symmetric solutions are found to be more than 500 percent due to the shifting of the buoyancy-driven cells. [S0022-1481(00)02503-2]


Author(s):  
Stephan Kabelac ◽  
Sebastian W. Freund

Experimental results on quasi-local heat transfer coefficients for evaporation and condensation in PHEs related to vapor quality, mass flow rate and heat flux are presented in this paper. The data is obtained from a refrigeration cycle involving a PHE evaporator and a PHE condenser with a secondary fluid loop. The considered refrigerants are ammonia and R-134a. Evaporator and condenser are equipped with multiple thermocouples along the plates, which allow for the deduction of local heat flux and heat transfer coefficients on seven subsections of the plates. The data resolves for the first time the complete evaporation and condensation process along a plate channel and thus may contribute to the understanding of flow distribution and heat transfer mechanisms. The results show an increase of heat transfer coefficients with the vapor quality and the effects of mass flux and heat flux. The results conclude that parallel flow arrangement is advantageous for evaporation while counter flow enhances condensation heat transfer. Plates with low pitch angle chevron corrugations increase the evaporation. Comparisons with the limited available data from literature and various correlations indicate the need for further theoretical development. The data may be suitable for developing correlations of the thermo-hydraulic performance of plate evaporators and condensers as a function of flow, heat flux and plate parameters, which are not established in literature.


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