A comparative investigation of heat transfer capacity limits of heat pipes

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Mühendislik Fakültesi, Makina Mühendisliği Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2007

Öğrenci: SİNAN KÜÇÜK

Danışman: İLKER TARI

Özet:

Heat pipe is a passive two phase device capable of transferring large rates of heat with a minimal temperature drop. It is a sealed tube with a wick structure lined in it and with a working fluid inside the tube. It consists of three parts: an evaporator, a condenser and an adiabatic section. The heat pipes are widely used in electronics cooling and spacecraft applications. Although they can transfer large rate of heat in a short range, they have operating limits, namely: the capillary limit, the viscous limit, the entrainment limit, the sonic limit and the boiling limit. These limits determine the heat transfer capacity of the heat pipe. The properties of the working fluid, the structure of the wick, the orientation of the pipe, the length and the diameter of the tube etc. are the parameters that affect the limits. In this study, an analytical 1-D heat pipe model is formed and a computer code is prepared in order to analyze the effects of the parameters on the heat transfer capacity of a heat pipe. Water, Ammonia and Mercury are investigated as working fluids for different operating temperature ranges. The software is tested for a typical application for each working fluid.