Fluid Flow and Capillary Limit in Heat Pipe Thermal Ground Planes

Author(s):  
Mohammed T. Ababneh ◽  
Frank M. Gerner

This work shows the solution of the fluid flow and the capillary limit in heat pipe thermal ground planes after solving the temperature field. In addition, the effect of wall shear stress and the interfacial shear stress in the liquid pressure of the TGP is studied. In order to obtain more accurate results it is necessary to solve the velocity and thermal fields in both the liquid saturated wick and the vapor. It is also important to account for the mass, momentum and energy balances at the interface between the vapor and liquid. Previous work demonstrated that for the TGP’s which utilize water as the working fluid, the Jacob number is very small. A consequence of this is that convection of liquid with the wick is much smaller than conduction and the temperature may be solved independently of the velocity field. These solutions were presented in previous work. A key feature of the thermal model is that it relies on empirical interfacial heat transfer coefficient data to very accurately model the interfacial energy balance at the vapor-liquid saturated wick interface. One important result uses a solution for the evaporation and condensation rates and hence normal velocities at the interface. The results show that for all of the TGP’s lengths, the ratio between the pressure drop in the vapor and the pressure drop in the liquid is close to zero. Therefore, the pressure drop in the liquid will determine the capillary limit in the TGP.

Author(s):  
Imène Saad ◽  
Samah Maalej ◽  
Mohamed Chaker Zaghdoudi

The present work highlights the impact of the working dielectric fluid on the flow and the thermal parameters of an axially grooved flat mini heat pipe (FMHP) submitted to Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) effects. Three dielectric working fluids are considered: pentane, R123, and R141b. A model is developed by considering the Laplace-Young, mass, momentum, and energy balance equations. The numerical results show that the electric field affects the liquid distribution along the heat pipe and helps the condensate to flow back to the evaporator section. Moreover, under the electric field conditions, the vapor pressure drop increases, however, the liquid pressure drop decreases. The effect of the electric field on the liquid velocity depends on the FMHP zone, and the vapor velocity is hardly affected by the EHD effects. Furthermore, lower capillary driving pressures are required to provide the necessary capillary pumping under EHD conditions. Besides, pentane allows for higher vapor pressure drops compared to those obtained with R123 and R141b, while the liquid pressure drops are highest for R123. It is found that with R123, the liquid velocity is higher than that reached with R141b and pentane. It is also demonstrated that the capillary limit increases under EHD conditions, and for R141b, the capillary limit is the highest either in zero-field and EHD conditions. Best heat pipe thermal performances are observed for wide and deep grooves with R141b. Finally, the optimum fill charge allowing the maximum heat transfer capacity is determined for each working fluid and different groove dimensions. It is shown that the optimum fill charge is hardly affected by the electric field whatever the working fluid. R123 requires the highest optimum fill charge, however, the heat transport capacity of the FMHP is the lowest when using this working fluid.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lazarus Godson Asirvatham ◽  
Rajesh Nimmagadda ◽  
Somchai Wongwises

The paper presents the enhancement in the operational limits (boiling, entrainment, sonic, viscous and capillary limits) of heat pipes using silver nanoparticles dispersed in de-ionized (DI) water. The tested nanoparticles concentration ranged from 0.003 vol. % to 0.009 vol. % with particle diameter of <100 nm. The nanofluid as working fluid enhances the effective thermal conductivity of heat pipe by 40%, 58%, and 70%, respectively, for volume concentrations of 0.003%, 0.006%, and 0.009%. For an input heat load of 60 W, the adiabatic vapor temperatures of nanofluid based heat pipes are reduced by 9 °C, 18 °C, and 20 °C, when compared with DI water. This reduction in the operating temperature enhances the thermophysical properties of working fluid and gives a change in the various operational limits of heat pipes. The use of silver nanoparticles with 0.009 vol. % concentration increases the capillary limit value of heat pipe by 54% when compared with DI water. This in turn improves the performance and operating range of the heat pipe.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4-2) ◽  
pp. 546-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hasan Basri ◽  
Jimmy Deswidawansyah Nasution ◽  
Ardiyansyah Syahrom ◽  
Mohd Ayub Sulong ◽  
Amir Putra Md. Saad ◽  
...  

This paper proposes an improved modeling approach for bone scaffolds biodegradation. In this study, the numerical analysis procedure and computer-based simulation were performed for the bone scaffolds with varying porosities in determining the wall shear stresses and the permeabilities along with their influences on the scaffolds biodegradation process while the bio-fluids flow through within followed with the change in the flow rates. Based on the experimental study by immersion testing from 0 to 72 hours of the time period, the specimens with different morphologies of the commercial bone scaffolds were collected into three groups samples of 30%, 41%, and 55% porosities. As the representative of the cancellous bone morphology, the morphological degradation was observed by using 3-D CAD scaffold models based on microcomputed tomography images. By applying the boundary conditions to the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the fluid-structure interaction (FSI) models, the wall shear stresses within the scaffolds due to fluid flow rates variation had been simulated and determined before and after degradation. The increase of fluid flow rates tends to raise the pressure drop for scaffold models with porosities lower than 50% before degradation. As the porosities increases, the pressure drop decreases with an increase in permeability within the scaffold. The flow rates have significant effects on scaffolds with higher pressure drops by introducing the wall shear stresses with the highest values and lower permeability. These findings indicate the importance of using accurate computational models to estimate shear stress and determine experimental conditions in perfusion bioreactors for tissue engineering more accurate results will be achieved to indicate the natural distributions of fluid flow velocity, wall shear stress, and pressure.


Author(s):  
Radhakanta Sarangi ◽  
Satya Prakash Kar ◽  
Abhilas Swain ◽  
Lalit Kumar Pothal

Abstract Numerical modelling of multi turn Closed Loop Pulsating Heat Pipe (CLPHP) is presented in this paper for ethanol as working fluid. Modelling is carried out for 1mm and 2mm ID PHP for different number of turns, different orientations and at constant wall temperature boundary conditions. Momentum and heat transfer variations with time are investigated numerically solving the one dimensional governing equations for vapor bubble and liquid plugs. Evaporation and condensation takes place by heat transfer through liquid film present around the vapour bubble. The code takes into account the realistic phenomena such as vapour bubble generation, liquid plug merging and super heating of vapor bubbles above its saturation temperature. During merging of liquid plugs, a time step adaptive scheme is implemented and this minimum time step was found to be 10−7 s. Nature of flow is investigated by momentum variation plot. Model results are compared with the experimental results from literature for nine different cases. Maximum variation in heat transfer for all these cases is found to be below ±34%. Keywords: Closed Loop Pulsating Heat Pipe, Liquid Plug, Plug momentum, Vapor Bubble, Heat Transfer, Thin Film Evaporation and Condensation


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Hoseinzadeh ◽  
Ali Sohani ◽  
Saman Samiezadeh ◽  
H. Kariman ◽  
M.H. Ghasemi

Purpose This study aim to use the finite volume method to solve differential equations related to three-dimensional simulation of a solar collector. Modeling is done using ANSYS-fluent software program. The investigation is done for a photovoltaic (PV) solar cell, with the dimension of 394 × 84 mm2, which is the aluminum type and receives the constant heat flux of 800 W.m−2. Water is also used as the working fluid, and the Reynolds number is 500. Design/methodology/approach In the present study, the effect of fluid flow path on the thermal, electrical and fluid flow characteristics of a PV thermal (PVT) collector is investigated. Three alternatives for flow paths, namely, direct, curved and spiral for coolant flow, are considered, and a numerical model to simulate the system performance is developed. Findings The results show that the highest efficiency is achieved by the solar cell with a curved fluid flow path. Additionally, it is found that the curved path’s efficiency is 0.8% and 0.5% higher than that of direct and spiral paths, respectively. Moreover, the highest pressure drop occurs in the curved microchannel route, with around 260 kPa, which is 2% and 5% more than the pressure drop of spiral and direct. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there has been no study that investigates numerically heat transfer, fluid flow and electrical performance of a PV solar thermal cell, simultaneously. Moreover, the effect of the microchannel routes which are considered for water flow has not been considered by researchers so far. Taking all the mentioned points into account, in this study, numerical analysis on the effect of different microchannel paths on the performance of a PVT solar collector is carried. The investigation is conducted for the Reynolds number of 500.


Author(s):  
Ming Zhang ◽  
Zhongliang Liu ◽  
Chen Wang

An effective thermal spreader can achieve uniform heat flux distribution and thus enhance heat dissipation of heat sinks. Flat plate heat pipe is one of the highly effective thermal spreaders. Magnetic fluid is a special fluid that can be made flow by traveling force of magnetic field. Therefore, the magnetic fluid is suitable for using as the working fluid of flat plate heat pipes that have a very small gap between evaporation and condensation surfaces. In this paper, we prepared a disk-shaped wickless flat plate heat pipe, and the distance between evaporation and condensation surfaces is 1 mm. From experimental study, the effects of heat flux and working fluid ratio on the performance of the flat plate heat pipe are obtained and the working performance of the magnetic fluid is compared with that of the water flat pate heat pipe of the same geometry structure.


Author(s):  
Praveen Kumar Arragattu ◽  
Frank M. Gerner ◽  
Priyanka Ponugoti ◽  
H. T. Henderson

The Micro Loop Heat Pipe (LHP) is a two phase device that may be used to cool electronics, solar collectors and other devices in space applications. A LHP is a two-phase device with extremely high effective thermal conductivity that utilizes the thermodynamic pressure difference developed between the evaporator and condenser and capillary forces developed inside its wicked evaporator to circulate a working fluid through a closed loop. While previous experiments have shown reduction in chip temperature, maximum heat flux was less than theoretically predicted. This paper addresses the main problem with the past designs of top cap which has been the conduction of heat from the heat source to the primary wick. The new top cap design provides conduction pathways which enables the uniform distribution of heat to the wick. The provision of conduction pathways in the top cap increases the pressure losses and decreases the temperature drop. The feasible competitive designs of the top cap with conduction pathways from the fabrication point of view were discussed in detail. Calculation of pressure drop and temperature drop is essential for the determination of optimal solutions of the top cap. Approximate pressure drop was calculated for the top cap designs using simple 2-D microchannel principles. Finite element modeling was performed to determine the temperature drop in the conduction pathways. The conditions used for arriving at the optimal design solutions are discussed. A trapezoidal slot top cap design was chosen for fabrication as it was relatively easy to fabricate with available MEMS fabrication technologies. The exact pressure drop calculation was performed on the fabricated top cap using commercial flow solver FLUENT 6.1 with appropriate boundary conditions. The temperature drop calculation was performed by finite element modeling in ANSYS 6.1. Obtained values of pressure drop and temperature drop for fabricated trapezoidal slot top cap was found to be within the optimal limits.


Author(s):  
Mahboobe Mahdavi ◽  
Amir Faghri

Abstract A comprehensive three-dimensional numerical model is developed to evaluate the effect of bending on water-copper cylindrical heat pipes. This model distinguishes itself from other models by its ability to uniquely determine the operating pressure of the heat pipe based on the operating and physical conditions. The effects of one 90-degree bend and two 90-degree bends are evaluated on the performance of a heat pipe. Two types of wicks are considered: a screen mesh wick and a sintered powder wick. The obtained results show that bending does affect the vapor pressure drop; however, the changes are not significant when compared to the operating pressure of the heat pipe. If the bending is performed in a manner where the wick is not damaged and the liquid is not blocked from returning to the evaporator, the performance of the heat pipe will not be affected significantly. In addition, if the heat pipe is operating in the horizontal direction, where both evaporator and condenser legs are at the same level, bending does not affect the liquid pressure drop significantly; however, the screen mesh does provide a higher capillary limit. The results also showed that the effects of gravity can be important when bending heat pipes and consideration should be given for this factor. When the bent heat pipe works against gravity, the sintered powder wick heat pipes showed higher capillary limits.


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