• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.320-327
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• 2006

Numerical analysis and experimental study are performed to investigate the effect of heat load and operating temperature on the thermal performance of several variable conductance heat pipe (VCHP) with screen meshed wick. The heat pipe is designed in 200 screen meshes, 500 mm length and 12.7 mm outer diameter tube of copper, water (4.8 g) is used as working fluid and nitrogen as non-condensible gas (NCG). Heat pipe used in this study has evaporator, condenser and adiabatic section, respectively. Analysis values and experimental data of wall temperature distribution along axial length are presented for heat transport capacity, condenser cooling water temperature change, degrees of an inclination angle and operating temperature. These analysis and experiment give the follow findings: For the same charging mass of working fluid, the operating temperature of heat pipe becomes to be high with the increasing of charging mass of NCG. When the heat flux at the evaporator section increases, the vapor pressure in the pipe rises and consequently compresses the NCG to the condenser end part and increases the active length of the condenser. From previous process, it is found out we can control the operating temperature effectively and also the analysis and experimental results are relatively coincided well.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.178-181
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• 2008

Cylindrical stainless-steel/sodium heat pipe for a high-temperature application was manufactured and tested for transient and steady-state operations. The container material was made of stainless-steel 316, and the working fluid was sodium. Stainless-steel 316 mesh screen was inserted as a capillary structure. The working fluid fill charge ratio was approximately 64 $\sim$ 181% based on the pore space of the wick. The outer diameter of the heat pipe was 12.7 mm and the total length was 250 mm. The evaporator part was 150 mm and the condenser 80 mm. The performance test of the heat pipe has been conducted in the furnace with up to 800 W. The variation of the average heat transfer coefficient was investigated as a function of heat flux and vapor temperature. As input thermal load increased, it was showed that difference of temperatures in evaporator and condenser decreased and that operating section and heat transfer characteristics at the heat pipe increased.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.220-225
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• 2008

Cylindrical stainless-steel/sodium heat pipe for a high-temperature solar thermal application was manufactured and tested for transient and steady-state operations. Two layers of stainless-steel screen mesh wick was inserted as a capillary structure. The outer diameter of the heat pipe was 12.7 mm and the total length was 250 mm. The effective heat transport length, the thermal load, and the operating temperature were varied as thermal transport conditions of the heat pipe. The thermal load was supplied by an electric furnace up to 1kW and the cooling was performed by forced convection of air The effective thermal conductivity and the thermal resistance were investigated as a function of heat flux, heat transport length, and vapor temperature. Typical range of the total effective thermal conductivity was as low as 43,500 W/m K for heat flux of 176.4 kW/$m^2$ and of operating temperature of 1000 K.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.311-316
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• 2005

The experimental study for an operational characteristics and performance of the sodium heat pipe were carried out. For an experiment. the heat pipe which is 1000mm length and 25.4mm diameter of stainless steel container with 50 mesh of screen wick using sodium as a working fluid is manufactured and tested as functions of heat flow rate, inclined angle and operating temperature. The test results are as follows. During the start-up. frontal start up was observed because of the vapor density increasing as increased the hot zone. Also, the heat pipe showed uniform temperature over than $420^{\circ}C$ of the operating temperature. The average heat transfer coefficient increased as the heat flux and the vapor temperature increase, and the range of the total thermal resistance was 0.075-0.04 $^{\circ}C/W$ at the 12-53.55 $kW/m^2$ of heat flux and $500-750^{\circ}C$of operating temperature. The maximum heat flow rate was 750W at the 10 degree of top heating mode.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2340-2345
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• 2008

Cylindrical stainless-steel/sodium heat pipe for a high-temperature application was manufactured and tested for transient and steady-state operations. Two layers of Stainless-steel screen mesh wick was inserted as a capillary structure. The outer diameter of the heat pipe was 12.7 mm and the total length was 250 mm. As thermal transport conditions, the effective transport length, the heat flux, the tilt angle and the operating temperature were varied. The heat was supplied by an electric furnace up to 1 kW and the cooling was performed by forced convection of air. The effective thermal conductivity and the thermal resistance were investigated as a function of heat flux, heat transport length, and vapor temperature. Typical range of the total thermal resistance was as low as $0.036^{\circ}C/W$ at $175.8\;kW/m^2$ of heat flux and $700^{\circ}C$ of operating temperature.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.1044-1051
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• 2005

The isothermal characteristics of a rectangular parallelepiped sodium heat pipe were inves­tigated for high-temperature applications. The heat pipes was made of stainless steel of which the dimension was $140\;m\;(L)\;{\times}\;95m\;(W)\;{\times}\;46 m\;(H)$ and the thickness of the container was 5 mm. Both inner surfaces of evaporator and condenser were covered with screen meshes to help spread the liquid state working fluid. To provide additional path for the working fluid, a lattice structure covered with screen mesh wick was inserted in the heat pipe. The bottom surface of the heat pipe was heated by an electric heater and the top surface was cooled by circulating coolant. The concern in this study was to enhance the temperature uniformity at the bottom surface of the heat pipe while an uneven heat source up to 900 W was in contact. The temperature distribution over the bottom surface was monitored at more than twenty six locations. It was found that the operating performance of the sodium heat pipe was critically affected by the inner wall temperature of the condenser region where the working fluid may be changed to a solid phase unless the temperature was higher than its melting point. The maximum temperature difference across the bottom surface was observed to be $114^{\circ}C$ for 850 W thermal load and $100^{\circ}C$ coolant inlet temperature. The effects of fill charge ratio, coolant inlet temperature and operating temperature on thermal performance of heat pipe were analyzed and discussed.