Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Copyright
C Taylor and Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0145-7632 print / 1521-0537 online
DOI: 10.1080/01457630701421810
VIKAS KUMAR
Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Pune University Campus, Maharashtra, India
The present investigation reports a theoretical and experimental study of a wire screen heat pipe, the evaporator section of
which is subjected to forced convective heating and the condenser section to natural convective cooling in air. The theoretical
study deals with the development of an analytical model based on thermal resistance network approach. The model computes
thermal resistances at the external surface of the evaporator and condenser as well as inside the heat pipe. A test rig has
been developed to evaluate the thermal performance of the heat pipe. The effects of operating parameters (i.e., tilt angle of
the heat pipe and heating fluid inlet temperature at the evaporator) have been experimentally studied. Experimental results
have been used to compare the analytical model. The heat transfer coefficients predicted by the model at the external surface
of the evaporator and condenser are reasonably in agreement with experimental results.
Table 1 Heat transport limitations of the heat pipe at different evaporator temperatures
1. Capillary
0 tilt 26.3 30.9 35.7 40.4 44.6 48.3 51.2 53.6
25 tilt 99.4 118.8 139.5 160.6 180.9 199.6 216.4 231.9
2. Sonic 6.0 103 9.4 103 1.4 104 2.2 104 3.4 104 5.1 104 7.5 104 1.1 105
3. Entrainment 4.0 103 4.8 103 5.9 103 7.1 103 8.6 103 1.0 104 1.2 104 1.4 104
4. Boiling 1.7 106 1.1 105 7.5 104 5.0 104 3.4 104 2.3 104 1.6 104 1.1 104
5. Viscous 6.5 106 9.6 106 1.4 107 2.0 107 3.0 107 4.3 107 6.0 107 8.3 107
Grashof number and Nusselt number are computed as follows with the following parameters:
[6, 16]:
= mL(R )exp(0.13mL1.3863) ,
g(Tp,c T )l 3
Gr = (15) df,o
2 R = , and
where the characteristic length of finned surface, l, is calculated do
from its basic definition given below:
2h
l = S + 2 Af /Pf (16) m=
kf tf
For inclined position l is taken as l sin , where is the incli- The heat transferred by radiation from condenser surface has
nation angle from horizontal. been computed as follows:
The following empirical relations [12] have been used for
calculating the Nusselt number. For laminar flow, QR = (Ao + Af f )F T4p,c T4 (23)
0.670Ra1/4
Nuplate = 0.68 + for 0 < Ra < 109 (17)
[1 + (0.492/ Pr)9/16 ]4/9 Computer Code
For the entire range of Ra,
The various equations used for the computation of overall
2
0.387Ra1/6 heat transfer coefficient have been solved using an iterative pro-
Nuplate = 0.825 + (18)
[1 + (0.492/ Pr)9/16 ]8/27 cedure by a computer code. The flowchart of the program is
shown in Figure 3. The input parameters required for the code
The Nusselt number is modified by using a correction factor for are heating fluid flow rate and its temperature at the inlet of
a cylinder: evaporator jacket, geometry of heating fluid path, dimensions
Nu = Nuplate (1 + 1.430.9 ) (19) of heat pipe, wick and fin, and ambient temperature. This pro-
gram has three subroutines, called WATPROP, AIRPROP, and
where METPROP, in which the properties of water, air, and metal are
calculated at different operating temperatures. The code com-
= (l/do )Gr1/4 putes individual heat transfer coefficient on the external surface
of evaporator and condenser, inside the heat pipe, fin efficiency,
Heat transfer coefficient on the outside surface of the condenser,
and the overall heat transfer coefficient.
hc :
Nuk
hc = (20)
l TEST RIG
rotameter has been used for measuring the flow rate of hot water. rator jacket using T-type copper/constantan thermocouple (R S
The data-acquisition system (Hewlett Packard-34970) has been components, 219-4680). Micro-foil heat flux sensors (RdF Cor-
used to monitor the axial temperature profile at the external poration, 204555-3) have been fixed on the surface of wooden
surface of the heat pipe and the inlet and outlet of the evapo- box at different locations to measure the heat flux through the
heat transfer engineering vol. 28 no. 11 2007
V. KUMAR ET AL. 959
Figure 7 Effect of heating fluid temperature on the internal heat transfer co- Figure 9 Effect of heating fluid temperature on the condenser heat transfer
efficient of the heat pipe. coefficient of the heat pipe.
Figure 10 Effect of heating fluid temperature on the overall heat transfer Figure 12 Effect of heating fluid temperature on the temperature drop across
coefficient of the heat pipe. evaporator and condenser end of the heat pipe.
Figure 14 Evaporator surface temperature predicted by the analytical model Figure 16 A comparison of the condenser temperature computed by the an-
and measured experimentally. alytical model and measured experimentally.
Churchill and Chus correlation for laminar range, which varied An analytical model, based on thermal resistance network
in the range of 518%. A comparison of condenser heat transfer method, has been developed to compute the overall heat trans-
coefficient predicted by the developed analytical model and the fer coefficient of a heat pipe in which the evaporator is exposed
experimental values is shown in Figure 17. The predicted heat to forced convection and the condenser to natural convection. A
transfer coefficient is higher as compared to the experimental test rig has been fabricated to evaluate its thermal performance.
value, which is due to the fact that the model predicts a higher Experimental studies have been conducted to characterize the
value of internal heat transfer coefficient and condenser temper- thermal behavior of the heat pipe, and some typical experimen-
ature. tal results have been used to validate the analytical model de-
veloped. The conclusions drawn from present investigations are
Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient summarized as follows.
The annular finned heat pipe gives better heat transport rate
The overall heat transfer coefficient has been computed by under inclined condition as compared to vertical condition. The
using the correlation proposed by Dobson and Kroger [11], Chi heat transport rate of the heat pipe increases as the tilt angle in-
[1], and Churchill and Chu (for all ranges of Rayleigh number) creases from 15 to 25 at a constant heating fluid temperature,
[12] in the analytical model. A comparison of the overall heat and it decreases beyond 25 tilt angle. At a constant tilt angle,
transfer coefficient predicted by the analytical model and exper- the temperature drop across the evaporator and condenser sec-
imentally determined values is shown in Figure 18. The overall tions of the heat pipe increases, as the heating fluid temperature
heat transfer coefficient predicted by the analytical model is in increases from 40 C to 70 C at the evaporator inlet. The maxi-
good agreement with experimental values, although there is a mum heat transport rate of the heat pipe has been obtained at a
deviation in the analytically computed value of an internal heat tilt angle of 25 and 70 C heating fluid temperature.
transfer coefficient. The value of the internal heat transfer coef- The heat transfer coefficient on the external surface of the
ficient is very high, and it contributes practically nothing to the evaporator predicted by the analytical model is close to the ex-
perimental value. The internal heat transfer coefficient of the
heat pipe determined by the model is much higher than the
experimental value due to which a higher value of condenser
temperature is predicted. The outside condenser heat transfer
coefficient predicted by the model is reasonably matching with
experimental value.
The overall heat transfer coefficient computed by the ana-
lytical model is in close agreement with the experimental val-
ues because of closer prediction of the evaporator and con-
denser heat transfer coefficient at its external surface, whereas
the value of the internal heat transfer coefficient is very high
and does not contribute significantly to the overall heat transfer
coefficient.
Figure 18 Overall heat transfer coefficient computed by the analytical model The model can be used as a design tool to evaluate the thermal
and obtained from experiments. performance of heat pipe under various operating conditions.
heat transfer engineering vol. 28 no. 11 2007
964 V. KUMAR ET AL.
Subscripts [15] Terdtoon, P., Ritthidech, S., and Shiraishi, M., Effect of Aspect
Ratio and Bond Number on Heat Transfer Characteristics of an
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f fin
[16] Incropera, F. P., and Dewit, D. P., Fundamental of Heat & Mass
h hot
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in input [17] Tathgir, R. G., Kumar, A., and Gangacharyulu, D., Performance
l liquid Characteristics of a Carbon Steel Heat Pipe at Low Tempera-
out output ture Range, 11th Int. Heat Pipe Conference, Tokyo, Japan, vol. 2,
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T total Y., and Taguchi, M., Heat Transfer Performance of a Corrugated-
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Gravity Assisted Copper-Water Heat Pipes, Proc. 2nd Int. Heat
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