Experimental investigations and correlations for the performance of reciprocating heat pipes

Jian Ling, Yiding Cao*, Qian Wang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

Reciprocating heat pipes are novel heat pipes that are being developed for engine piston applications. These heat pipes have a high effective thermal conductance due to the impinging effects of liquid particles in the heat pipe. In this investigation, semiempirical correlations for the dimensionless temperature distribution and effective thermal conductivity of heat pipes are derived. Extensive experiments are conducted to investigate the effects of thermal and geometrical conditions on the performance of reciprocating heat pipes, and a large number of experimental data are generated. Experimental results indicate that the effective thermal conductance of the reciprocating heat pipe can be more than 300 times that of a solid copper bar of equal size. Comparison of the experimental data and correlation shows that the experimental data can be correlated to within ±30% by the correlation derived, which provides a quantitative relation for heat pipe design purposes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)34-45
Number of pages12
JournalHeat Transfer Engineering
Volume17
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1996

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the Office of Naval Research and Florida International University for financial support, and P. Stemmed of the Office of Naval Research for his interest in this project. Address correspondence to Prof. Yiding Cao, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Florida International University, University Park, Miami, FL 33199, USA.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes

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