Cover
Vol. 14 No. 2 (2014)

Published: June 30, 2014

Pages: 240-254

Original Article

Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Wire Screen Mesh Specification and Evaporator Length on Thermal Performance of Cylindrical Heat Pipe

Hassanain Ghani Hameed 1 Abudl-Muhsin A. Rageb 1
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Basrah College of Engineering
History
  • Received: March 30, 2014
  • Available Online: June 30, 2014
DOI

https://doi.org/10.33971/bjes.14.2.24

Abstract

A numerical model has been developed to determine the effect of the wire screen mesh (wick) type on the heat transfer performance of copper–water wicked heat pipe. This model represented as steady-state incompressible flow. The governing equations in cylindrical coordinates have been solved in vapor region, wick structure and wall region, using finite difference with forward-backward upwind scheme. The results show that increasing the mesh number led to decreasing the maximum heat transfer limit and increasing the capillary pressure. While, for the same heat input the operating temperature of the heat pipe increase when the mesh number increase. Also, it was found that increasing the evaporation length, with constant condensation length, decrease the operating temperature and increase the maximum heat transfer limit. For verification of the current model, the results of liquid pressure drop for a heat pipe have been compared with the previous study for the same problem and a good agreement has been achieved.

References

  1. - G.P. Peterson, An Introduction to Heat Pipes: Modeling, Testing, and Applications, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1994.
  2. - A. Faghri, Heat Pipe Science and Technology, Taylor & Francis, Washington, DC, 1995.
  3. - N. Zhu, K. Vafai, Analysis of cylindrical heat pipes incorporating the effects of liquid–vapor coupling and non- Darcian transport – A closed form solution, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 42 (1999) 3405–3418.
  4. - J.M. Tournier, M.S. El-Genk, Startup of a horizontal lithium–molybdenum heat pipe from a frozen state, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 46 (2003) 671–685.
  5. - K.A.R. Ismail, M.A. Zanardi, A steady-state model for heat pipes of circular or rectangular cross-sections, Journal of Applied Thermal Engineering 16 (1996) 753–767.
  6. - K.A.R. Ismail, R.F. Miranda, Two-dimensional axisymmetrical model for a rotating porous wicked heat pipe, Journal of Applied Thermal Engineering 17 (1997) 135–155.
  7. - K.A.R. Ismail, M.M. Abogderah, Performance of a heat pipe solar collector, Journal of Solar Engineering 120 (1998) 51–59.
  8. - H. Shabgard and A. Faghri, Performance characteristics of cylindrical heat pipes with multiple heat sources, Journal of Applied Thermal Engineering 31 (2011) 3410–3419.
  9. - R. Kempers et al., Effect of number of mesh layers and fluid loading on the performance of screen mesh wicked heat pipes, Journal of Applied Thermal Engineering 26 (2006) 589–595.
  10. - Y.M. Chen, S.C. Wu, C.I. Chu, Thermal performance of sintered miniature heat pipes, Heat and Mass Transfer 37 (2001) 611–616.
  11. - Latif M. Jiji, Heat Convection, © Springer 2006.
  12. - A. Nouri-Borujerdi, M. Layeghi, A Numerical Analysis of Vapor Flow in Concentric Annular Heat Pipes, Transaction of ASME: Journal of Fluids Engineering, Vol. 126, pp.442- 448, 2004.
  13. - O. T. Fadhil, Numerical and Experimental Study on a Heat Pipe With Porous Media Wick, Ph.D. Thesis, university of Technology, 2006.
  14. - S. Mahtabroshan, Numerical Mahjoub, A. Simiulation of a Conventional Heat Pipe, World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, Vol. 39, pp. 117- 122, 2008
  15. - B. Rashidian, M. Amidpour and M. R. Jafari Nasr , Modeling the Transient Response of the Thermosyphon Heat Pipes, Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering, Vol. II, London, U.K., 2008.
  16. - D. Reay and P. Kew, Heat Pipes: Theory, Design and Applications, Fifth Edition,Elsevier, 2006.
  17. - M. Cleary, R. Grimes, M. Hodes and M. T. North, Design of a Variable Conductance Heat Pipe for a Photonic Component, Proceedings of IMECE2006 , Chicago, USA, 2006.