Numerical study on thermohydraulic behavior in evaporator section of wicked copper-water heat pipe at low superheat

Abstract

Previous numerical studies have focused on the temperature profiles, flow pattern, heat transfer characteristics and transient behavior of wickless heat pipes. With the increase of heat dissipated power, the heat transfer capacity of the wickless heat pipe is no longer satisfied. Therefore, the research on flow and heat transfer of wicked heat pipe is more meaningful. In this paper, the numerical model of the heat pipe evaporator with a simplified rectangular wick structure was simulated. The present work to be aimed at the numerical model investigating on possible heat transfer performance. The effects of wick thickness, wick porosity, contact angle, single and double layer on heat transfer and flow characteristics were studied. For the wick thickness of 0.25, 0.5 and 1 mm, the 0.5 mm wick exhibits good versatility in heat transfer and flow. The porosity of 0.3 exhibits better heat transfer than that of 0.5, 0.7, 0.9. The value of the Nusselt number of the porosity of 0.3 reaches 142. For the contact Angle of 0, 30, 60, 90 degrees, 30 degrees has better heat transfer performance. Compared with single-layer wick, the double-layer wick can better promote thermal-hydraulic behavior.