The Pulsating Heat Pipe (PHP) is a thermally driven two-phase passive device mainly based on the interplay between phase change phenomena (film evaporation, flow boiling, film condensation) and capillary forces. Because of its low cost and its potential capability to operate without gravity, it is one of the most novel, promising devices for the thermal control of electronic equipment for ground and space applications [1,2]. Thanks to the small dimension of the internal diameter (usually between 1 and 2mm) capillary forces have the same order of magnitude of inertial forces and gravity forces. So gravity is not essential to the PHP operate but affects the thermal performances. The present paper reports an experimental validation of a previous numerical result, which suggests that the thermal performance of a PHP operating in ground conditions at horizontal position is equal to the microgravity operation at any orientation [3]. Therefore the results encompass ground experiments and those collected during the 58th parabolic flight campaign organized by ESA in May 2013. This work experimentally analyses the gravity effect on the thermal performances of a PHP, made of a copper pipe copper (I.D. 1.1mm, O.D. 2mm), bent into 16 turns and filled with FC-72. FC-72 is one of the most employed fluid as the pipe or channel diameter is lower than 2 mm because of its low tension surface [4]. A wide experimental analysis made with ground gravity configurations, but different tilting angles (0° and 90°) has been carried out in order to test how the thermal performances of the device are influenced by gravity.

Thermo-Hydraulics Characterization of a Pulsating Heat Pipe in a Variable Gravity Regimes

ARANEO, LUCIO TIZIANO;
2013-01-01

Abstract

The Pulsating Heat Pipe (PHP) is a thermally driven two-phase passive device mainly based on the interplay between phase change phenomena (film evaporation, flow boiling, film condensation) and capillary forces. Because of its low cost and its potential capability to operate without gravity, it is one of the most novel, promising devices for the thermal control of electronic equipment for ground and space applications [1,2]. Thanks to the small dimension of the internal diameter (usually between 1 and 2mm) capillary forces have the same order of magnitude of inertial forces and gravity forces. So gravity is not essential to the PHP operate but affects the thermal performances. The present paper reports an experimental validation of a previous numerical result, which suggests that the thermal performance of a PHP operating in ground conditions at horizontal position is equal to the microgravity operation at any orientation [3]. Therefore the results encompass ground experiments and those collected during the 58th parabolic flight campaign organized by ESA in May 2013. This work experimentally analyses the gravity effect on the thermal performances of a PHP, made of a copper pipe copper (I.D. 1.1mm, O.D. 2mm), bent into 16 turns and filled with FC-72. FC-72 is one of the most employed fluid as the pipe or channel diameter is lower than 2 mm because of its low tension surface [4]. A wide experimental analysis made with ground gravity configurations, but different tilting angles (0° and 90°) has been carried out in order to test how the thermal performances of the device are influenced by gravity.
2013
Pulsating Heat Pipe; microgravity; hypergravity
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11311/758641
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