SENTHILKUMAR R.et. al.

/ International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology

Vol. 2(4), 2010, 564-569

THERMAL ANALYSIS OF HEAT PIPE

USING TAGUCHI METHOD
SENTHILKUMAR R1, VAIDYANATHAN S2, SIVARAMAN B2
1
Lecturer (Senior Scale) in Mechanical Engineering, Annamalai University,
2
Reader in Mechanical Engineering, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar – 608 002,
Tamil Nadu, India.

Abstract

The heat pipe is a novel heat transfer device to transfer large amount of heat through a small cross sectional
area with very small temperature differences and it also posses high thermal conductance and low thermal
impedance. In this paper, the heat pipe working parameters are analyzed using Taguchi methodology. The Taguchi
method is used to formulate the experimental work, analyze the effect of working parameters of the heat pipe and
predict the optimal parameter of heat pipe such as heat input, inclination angle and flow rate. It is found that these
parameters have a significant influence on heat pipe performance. The analysis of the Taguchi method reveals that,
all the parameters mentioned above have equal contributions in the performance of heat pipe efficiency, thermal
resistance and overall heat transfer coefficient. Experimental results are provided to validate the suitability of the
proposed approach.

Keywords: heat pipe, taguchi method, heat input, inclination, flow rate, thermal resistance

1. Introduction
The heat pipe is a thermal device which affords efficient transport of thermal energy by using an
intermediate heat transfer fluid. Heat pipes consist of a sealed container with a small amount of a working fluid. The
heat is transferred as latent heat energy by evaporating the working fluid in the evaporator zone and condensing the
vapour in a cooling zone, the circulation is completed by the return flow of the condensate to the evaporator zone
through the wrapped screen capillary structure which lines the inner wall of the container [2,5]. By suitable design,
heat pipes are being constructed to serve diverse functions such as precise temperature control, one-way
transmission of heat (thermal diode) and heat flux amplification and diminution. [The heat pipes are more
advantageous in heat recovery systems [4, 7], solar energy [3], Electronics cooling [8, 9], Ocean thermal energy
conversion, air craft cooling [9], Geothermal conversion and light water nuclear reactors [6]. The common sections
of the vapour space are circular, rectangular and annular [1] and are chosen based on the application of heat pipe.

Taguchi techniques are experimental design optimization techniques [10, 11] which use standard
‘Orthogonal Arrays’ for forming a matrix of experiments in such a way to extract the maximum important
information with minimum number of experiments. Using Taguchi techniques, the number of parameters can be
tested at a time with probably least number of experiments as compared to any of the other experimental
optimization techniques. Moreover, the technique provides all the necessary information required for optimizing the
problem. The main advantage of Taguchi Techniques is not only the smallest number of experiments required but
also the best level of each parameter can be found and each parameter can be shared towards the problem separately.
The main steps of Taguchi Method are determining the quality characteristics and design parameters necessary for
the product/process, designing and conducting the experiments, analyzing the results to determine the optimum
conditions and carrying out a confirmatory test using the optimum conditions.

2. Experimental Set up

The schematic diagram of the experimental setup is shown in Fig.1. The specifications of heat pipe are
tabulated in table 1. Heat input was given at the evaporator section using an electric strip attached to it with proper
electrical insulation and heater was energized with an AC supply through a variac. The desired heat input was
supplied to the evaporator end of the heat pipe by adjusting the variac. Water jacket at the condenser end was used

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 SENTHILKUMAR R.et. al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology
Vol. 2(4), 2010, 564-569

to remove the heat from the pipe. The heat pipe has the ability to transfer the heat through the internal structure. As a
result, sudden rise in wall temperature occurs which could damage the heat pipe if the heat was not released at the
condenser properly. Therefore, before heat was supplied to the evaporator, the cooling water was first circulated
through the condenser jacket. The power input was gradually raised to the desired power level. The surface
temperatures at seven different locations along the heat pipe were measured using thermocouple at a regular time
interval of ten minutes until heat pipe reaches steady state condition. Simultaneously the evaporator wall
temperature, wick temperature, water inlet and outlet temperatures were measured using thermocouple. Once steady
state was reached, the input power was turned off and cooling water was allowed to flow through the condenser to
cool the heat pipe in order to make it ready for further experimental purpose. Then the power was increased to the
next level and the heat pipe was tested for its performance. Experimental procedures were repeated for different
flow rates and different inclinations of the heat pipe with respect to the horizontal and observations were recorded.

Fig.1. Schematic diagram of experimental set up

Table 1. Specifications of heat pipe

Specifications Dimensions
Outside diameter, m 0.022
Inside diameter, m 0.0196
Evaporator length, m 0.15
Condenser length, m 0.15
Adiabatic length, m 0.70
Total length, m 1.00
Working Fluid Water
Wick mesh size, m 1600
Wick porosity 0.769
No. of layers of wick 2
Wick permeability, m2 2.213 x 10-9
Capillary Limit, W 108.8
Sonic Limit, W 83852.5
Entrainment Limit, W 5553.2
Boiling Limit, W 711.6

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Vol. 2(4), 2010, 564-569

3. Design of Experiments and Data Analysis

3.1 Design of Experiments

For the experimental purpose, the three parameters and three levels are used for Taguchi method with very
careful understanding of the levels taken for the factors. The factors to be studied are mentioned in table 2. Before
selecting an orthogonal array, the minimum number of experiments to be conducted can be fixed by using the
following relation,

where N Taguchi is the number of experiments to be conducted, NV is the number of variables and L is the number of
levels. In this analysis, NV = 3 and L = 3. Hence a minimum of seven experiments are to be conducted. The
standard orthogonal arrays available are L4, L8, L9, L12, L16, L18 etc,. According to the Taguchi design concept L9
orthogonal array is chosen for the experiments as shown in table 3. In this study, the observed values of heat input,
inclination angle and flow rate are set at maximum level. Each experimental trail is performed as per L9 table and
the optimization of the observed values is determined by comparing the standard method and analysis of variance
(ANOVA) which is based on the Taguchi method. Table 4 shows the experimental design for L9 orthogonal array.
In the Taguchi method, all the observed values are calculated based on the concept higher the better and smaller the
better. In this analysis, the observed values of efficiency, thermal resistance and overall heat transfer coefficient are
set to the maximum, minimum and maximum respectively.

Table 2. Control parameters and levels

Control Parameters Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Heat Input (W) 40 60 80
Inclination Angle (Deg) 0 45 90
Flow rate (kg/min) 0.06 0.08 0.1

Table 3. Orthogonal array for L9 design

L9 Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

1 1 1 1
2 1 2 2
3 1 3 3
4 2 1 2
5 2 2 3
6 2 3 1
7 3 1 3
8 3 2 1
9 3 3 2

3.2 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is used to analyse the experimental data as follows.
Sound to Noise ratio (S/N ratio) =

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 SENTHILKUMAR R.et. al. / International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology
Vol. 2(4), 2010, 564-569

Correction factor (C.F) =

Sum of Squares (SS) is given by the equation,

SS = ½ {(sum of S/N ratio I level)2 +(sum of S/N ratio II level)2 + (sum of S/N ratio III level)2 – C.F}

Percentage of Contribution = SS / total sum of squares

where yi is the output or performance characteristic

N is the total number of experiments

3.3 Data Analysis

In this study, the objective is to determine the main effects of the working parameters of heat pipe, to
perform the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and to establish the optimum conditions based on the Taguchi method.
The main effects of heat pipe analysis are used to study the effects of each of the factors, as shown in figures 2, 3
and 4. The performances of the heat pipe (ANOVA-significant factor) can be calculated for each experiment of the
L9 by using the observed values of the efficiency, thermal resistance and overall heat transfer coefficient from table
4. Table 5, 6 and 7 lists the ANOVA test results for efficiency, thermal resistance and overall heat transfer
coefficient respectively. The optimum operating conditions of heat pipe (ANOVA-optimum condition) for each of
the observed values are illustrated in tables 8, 9 and 10.

Table 4. Experimental design for L9 orthogonal array

Test Heat Angle of Flow Efficiency S/N Thermal S/N Overall Heat S/N
Input Inclination Rate (%) ratio Resistance ratio Transfer ratio
o
(W) (deg) (kg/min) C/W Coefficient
(W/m2K)
1 40 0 0.06 26.42 28.44 7.959 18.02 75.83 37.60
2 40 45 0.08 28.92 29.22 7.432 17.42 75.83 37.60
3 40 90 0.1 33.63 30.54 6.466 16.21 74.87 37.49
4 60 0 0.08 31.42 29.94 7.959 18.02 76.36 37.66
5 60 45 0.1 33.35 30.46 6.620 16.42 76.01 37.62
6 60 90 0.06 30.86 29.79 6.315 16.01 75.67 37.58
7 80 0 0.1 34.38 30.73 9.118 19.2 77.52 37.79
8 80 45 0.06 29.94 29.53 8.519 18.61 76.92 37.72
9 80 90 0.08 33.77 30.57 8.519 18.61 76.92 37.72

Table 5. Analysis of variance for Efficiency

Parameter I mean II mean III mean SS % of contribution

Heat Input 29.40 30.06 30.28 80.55.15 33.33
Angle of Inclination 29.70 29.74 30.30 8054.28 33.34
Flow Rate 29.25 29.91 30.58 8057.21 33.34

Table 6. Analysis of variance for Thermal resistance

Parameter I mean II mean III mean SS % of contribution

Heat Input 17.22 16.82 18.81 2802.04 33.39
Angle of Inclination 18.41 17.83 16.94 2797.04 33.33
Flow Rate 17.55 18.02 17.28 2793.33 33.28

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Vol. 2(4), 2010, 564-569

Table 7. Analysis of variance for Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient

Parameter I mean II mean III mean SS % of contribution

Heat Input 37.56 37.62 37.74 12752.51 33.33
Angle of Inclination 37.68 37.65 37.60 12752.45 33.33
Flow Rate 37.63 37.66 37.63 12752.44 33.33

4. Results and Discussion

Figure 2 shows the effects of efficiency of each factor for various level conditions. From the figure, it is
clear that, the efficiency of heat pipe increases with all the three parameters i.e. the heat input, angle of inclination
and flow rate. The rate of increase for the efficiency is higher for flow rate when compared with the heat input and
angle of inclination. As the flow rate increases, the amount of heat absorbed in the condenser section is higher due to
high heat transfer coefficient of water which is used as a cooling medium in the condenser.
Figure 3 depicts the variations of thermal resistance of heat pipe with all the three working parameters. The
thermal resistance of heat pipe decreases for increasing values of heat input and angle of inclination. But in the case
of flow rate, thermal resistance decreases upto the level II and afterwards its value increases from level II to level
III. The flow is disturbed inside the heat pipe between the evaporator and condensate which is coming from the
condenser. This may be the reason for an increase in the thermal resistance of the heat pipe. The variations of
thermal resistance in all the levels are less than 10%.
Figure 4 displays the variations of overall heat transfer coefficient for all the parameters. But the variations
are very less or almost same for all the conditions. These variations are within the range of 1%. It indicates that the
overall heat transfer coefficient plays an important role in heat transfer characteristics of heat pipe and its value is
almost constant.
The percentage contributions of all the working parameters of heat pipe are almost same in all the levels as
seen in Figure 5. The variations are quite less than 0.2% only. The optimum working conditions of heat pipe by
adopting Taguchi method is tabulated in table 8.

Fig 2 Effect of each factor on Efficiency Fig 3 Effect of each factor on Thermal Resistance

Fig 5 Percentage of Contribution in Heat Pipe Performance

Fig 4 Effect of each factor on Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient

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Vol. 2(4), 2010, 564-569

Table 8. Optimum working parameters

Working parameter Level I Level II Level III

o
Efficiency 80 W 90 0.1 kg/min
o
Thermal Resistance 60 W 90 0.1 kg/min
o
Over Heat transfer coefficient 80 W 0 0.8 kg/min

After determining the optimum working parameters of heat pipe using Taguchi methodology, the
experiments are conducted and their values are displayed in the table 9. The experimental results give the optimum
performance of heat pipe and these values are found to be better than the previous observations.

Table 9. Optimum solution of heat pipe

Parameter Result
Percentage Efficiency 35.03
Thermal resistance (oC/W) 6.1
Overall heat transfer coefficient (W/m2K) 78.51

5. Conclusion

The results obtained for investigating the performance of the heat pipe after conducting the experiments are
summarized as follows.

 The contributions of all the working parameters (heat input, angle of inclination and flow rate) in heat pipe
performance have equal importance.
 The overall heat transfer coefficient of heat pipe is almost same for all levels.
 Taguchi optimal solutions give the better results for heat pipe operations and it also reduces the number of
experiments that are required for finding its performance metrics.
 The experimental results show that the heat input, angle of inclination and flow rate play an important role
in the operations of heat pipe and these contributions are almost equal.

6. References

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1541, (2006)
[9] Sonan R, Harmand S, Pellé J, Leger D, Fakès M, Transient thermal and hydrodynamic model of flat heat pipe for the cooling of
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[10] Tsa F.Ci, Yan B.H, Kuan C.Y, Huang F.Y, A Taguchi and experimental investigation into the optimal processing conditions for the
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