• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1622-1629
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• 2002

To enhance isothermal characteristics of glass-farming surface, a rectangular parallelepiped heat pipes was fabricated, tested, and analyzed. The working fluid was sodium and the wall material was stainless steel 304. The dimension of the heat pipe was 210 (L) $\times$ 140(W) $\times$ 92(H)mm. A lattice structure covered with screen mesh was inserted to promote return of working fluid. The bottom side of heat pipe was heated electrically and the top side was cooled by liquid circulation. The temperature distribution at the bottom surface was of major concern and was monitored to determine isothermal characteristics. A frozen start-up of rectangular parallelepiped liquid metal heat pipe was tested. The operating mode of the sodium heat pipe was affected by the temperature of cooling zone, input heat flux, and the operating temperature of heat pipe. The heat pipe operated in a normal fashion as long as the heat flux was over 5.78W/cm$^2$, and the inside wall temperature of condenser part was above 95$^{\circ}C$ The maximum temperature difference at the bottom surface was observed to be 32$^{\circ}C$ when the operating temperature of the heat pipe was operating normally around 50$0^{\circ}C$. The result showed that a sodium heat pipe was very effective in reducing significantly the temperature difference in the glass-forming surface.