scholarly journals Experimental investigation of a loop heat pipe with a flat evaporator and cupric oxide nanofluids as working fluid

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 7693-7703
Author(s):  
Tianyuan Zhao ◽  
Zhengyuan Ma ◽  
Zikang Zhang ◽  
Weizhong Deng ◽  
Rui Long ◽  
...  
Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 2403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eui Guk Jung ◽  
Joon Hong Boo

Part I of this study introduced a mathematical model capable of predicting the steady-state performance of a loop heat pipe (LHP) with enhanced rationality and accuracy. Additionally, investigation of the effect of design parameters on the LHP thermal performance was also reported in Part I. The objective of Part II is to experimentally verify the utility of the steady-state analytical model proposed in Part I. To this end, an experimental device comprising a flat-evaporator LHP (FLHP) was designed and fabricated. Methanol was used as the working fluid, and stainless steel as the wall and tubing-system material. The capillary structure in the evaporator was made of polypropylene wick of porosity 47%. To provide vapor removal passages, axial grooves with inverted trapezoidal cross-section were machined at the inner wall of the flat evaporator. Both the evaporator and condenser components measure 40 × 50 mm (W × L). The inner diameters of the tubes constituting the liquid- and vapor-transport lines measure 2 mm and 4 mm, respectively, and the lengths of these lines are 0.5 m. The maximum input thermal load was 90 W in the horizontal alignment with a coolant temperature of 10 °C. Validity of the said steady-state analysis model was verified for both the flat and cylindrical evaporator LHP (CLHP) models in the light of experimental results. The observed difference in temperature values between the proposed model and experiment was less than 4% based on the absolute temperature. Correspondingly, a maximum error of 6% was observed with regard to thermal resistance. The proposed model is considered capable of providing more accurate performance prediction of an LHP.


Author(s):  
Randeep Singh ◽  
Aliakbar Akbarzadeh ◽  
Masataka Mochizuki ◽  
Thang Nguyen ◽  
Vijit Wuttijumnong

Loop heat pipe (LHP) is a very versatile heat transfer device that uses capillary forces developed in the wick structure and latent heat of evaporation of the working fluid to carry high heat loads over considerable distances. Robust behaviour and temperature control capabilities of this device has enable it to score an edge over the traditional heat pipes. In the past, LHPs has been invariably assessed for electronic cooling at large scale. As the size of the thermal footprint and available space is going down drastically, miniature size of the LHP has to be developed. In this paper, results of the investigation on the miniature LHP (mLHP) for thermal control of electronic devices with heat dissipation capacity of up to 70 W have been discussed. Copper mLHP with disk-shaped flat evaporator 30 mm in diameter and 10 mm thickness was developed. Flat evaporators are easy to attach to the heat source without any need of cylinder-plane-reducer saddle that creates additional thermal resistance in the case of cylindrical evaporators. Wick structure made from sintered nickel powder with pore size of 3–5 μm was able to provide adequate capillary forces for the continuos circulation of the working fluid, and successfully transport heat load at the required distance of 60 mm. Heat was transferred using 3 mm ID copper tube with vapour and liquid lines of 60 mm and 200 mm length respectively. mLHP showed very reliable start up at different heat loads and was able to achieve steady state without any symptoms of wick dry-out. Tests were conducted on the mLHP with evaporator and condenser at the same level. Total thermal resistance, R total of the mLHP came out to be in the range of 1–4°C/W. It is concluded from the outcomes of the investigation that mLHP with flat evaporator can be effectively used for the thermal control of the electronic equipments with restricted space and high heat flux chipsets.


2012 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 34-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.B. Chen ◽  
W. Liu ◽  
Z.C. Liu ◽  
H. Li ◽  
J.G. Yang

Author(s):  
Guohui Zhou ◽  
Ji Li ◽  
Lucang Lv

In this paper, a miniature loop heat pipe (mLHP) with a flat evaporator is illustrated and investigated experimentally, with water as the working fluid. The mLHP can be applied for the mobile electronics cooling, such as tablet computers and laptop computers, with a 1.2 mm thick ultra-thin flat evaporator and a thickness of 1.0 mm for the vapor line, liquid line and condenser. A narrow sintered copper mesh in the liquid line and a part of the condenser as the secondary wick can promote the flow of the condensed working fluid back to the evaporator. The experimental results showed that the mLHP could start up successfully and operate stably at low heat load of 3 W in the horizontal orientation, and transport a high heat load of 12 W (the heat flux of 4 W/cm2) with the evaporator temperature below 100 °C in different test orientations by natural convection, showing good operational performance against gravity field. The minimum mLHP thermal resistance of 0.32 K/W was achieved at the input heat load of 12 W in the horizontal orientation.


Author(s):  
Dongchuan Mo ◽  
Guansheng Zou ◽  
Shushen Lu ◽  
L. Winston Zhang

This paper presents a flow visualization study on the temperature oscillations inside a loop heat pipe in order to gain a better understanding of its heat transfer characteristics. A flat loop heat pipe (FLHP) with a flat evaporator instead of a typical cylindrical evaporator was built using copper as the shell and water as the working fluid. An experimental setup was designed by using the transparent material instead of copper in some parts of the FLHP. The experiment results showed that there were at least three different flow patterns in the vapor line as the heating power increased. The temperatures in different locations of the loop oscillated even when the heating power was kept constant. The largest amplitude of the temperature oscillation in the loop was located at the condenser outlet. It was found that the temperature oscillation at the condenser outlet could be divided into two types, one with smaller amplitudes and the other with larger amplitudes. The smaller amplitude temperature oscillations were always there when the heating power was increased step by step, while the larger amplitude temperature oscillations would disappear initially and show up later. Finally, the location of the vapor/liquid interface inside the condenser varied with the temperature oscillations, resulting in liquid/vapor interface motion in the compensation chamber.


Author(s):  
J. H. Boo ◽  
E. G. Jung

It is common for loop heat pipes to experience start-up problems under low thermal loads. The start-up characteristic of a loop heat pipe with flat evaporator was investigated experimentally in this study. A bypass line was attached to the evaporator to alleviate the difficulties associated with startup. Axial grooves were provided in the flat evaporator to serve as a vapor passage. The evaporator and condenser had dimensions of 40 mm (W) by 50 mm (L). Coolant paths were machined inside the condenser. The inner diameters of liquid and vapor transport lines were 2.0 mm and 4.0 mm, respectively and the length of the two lines was 0.5 m each. The thermal load range was up to 80 W using methanol as a working fluid with the condenser temperature of 10°C at horizontal position. The results showed that a minimum thermal load for the startup was lowered by 37% when the bypass line was employed. However, a periodical performance variation was observed once the startup was achieved under very low thermal loads.


Author(s):  
Joon Hong Boo ◽  
Won Bok Chung

A small-scale loop heat pipe (LHP) with polypropylene (PP) wick was fabricated and tested for its thermal performance. The container and tubing of the system were made of stainless steel and several working fluids were used including methanol, ethanol, acetone, and ammonia. The heater and the evaporator were sized so that the system can be applied to a local thermal control including electronics cooling. The heating area was 35 mm × 35 mm and there were nine axial grooves in the flat evaporator (40 by 50 mm) to provide a vapor passage. The pore size of the polypropylene wick inside the evaporator was varied from 0.5 μm to 25 μm. The size of condenser was 40 mm (W) × 50 mm (L) in which ten coolant paths were provided. The inner diameters of liquid and vapor transport lines were 2.0 mm and 4.0 mm, respectively and the length of the two lines was 0.5 m each. The start-up transient as well as steady-state operation was investigated with maximum system operating temperature of 90°C, which was imposed to protect the PP from permanent deformation. The minimum thermal load of 10 W (0.8 W/cm2) and maximum thermal load of 80 W (6.5 W/cm2) were achieved using methanol as working fluid with the condenser temperature of 20°C at horizontal position. For a LHP with ammonia as working fluid, the minimum thermal load of 1 W and maximum thermal load of 87 W (7.1 W/cm2) were achieved for condenser temperature of 0°C at horizontal position. The minimum system thermal resistance was 0.65 K/W.


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