THERMAL PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT OF A VERTICAL THERMOSYPHON HEAT PIPE BY FLOW CONTROL OF THE TWO PHASES

Abstract

Heat Pipe (THP) has a continues evaporation/ condensation cycles of the working fluid. The flow patterns of the two phases is founds by previous published articles, as a non-steady complex spatial flow pattern. This type of the flow blocks the easy moving of the two-phases and limits the thermal performance of the THP. In this study, a copper tubes packing (TP) is simulated numerically to control/manage the flow streams of the two phases inside the THP. The simulated THP is 600mm length made of copper partially filled with water. The TP is consist of a two copper tubes attached contrary to each other with a neighboring openings. The upper tube (Riser tube) facilitate the moving of steam streams from evaporator section to the top of the condenser section. The lower tube (Down-comer tube) facilitate the moving of the condensate streams from the condenser section to the bottom of the evaporator section. The tested filling ratios are (40,50,55,60 and 70) % of evaporator section volume. The supplied heats are (50,75,100,150 and 200) W. The Computational Fluid Dynamics solution are done for a three dimensional model (3DCFD) using ANSYS/ Fluent R19.0 software. The simulation result of the steam volume fractions contours shows that the insertion of TP control the flow streams of both phases. Also prevent the formation of complex flow patterns then enhance the axial velocity vectors and reduce cross velocity vectors. The inserted TP provide a regular circulation paths for the working fluid phases and enhance evaporation /condensation processes. Hence it’s reduce the thermal resistance of the THP about 55% and enhance the thermal performance with the same percentage. In addition, the thermal performance of the enhanced TPTHP is not/a little influence due to the variation of the filling ratio.