SEMINAR

ON
“HEAT PIPE”

PRESENTED BY:
RAHUL MISHRA
3RD CHE
CONTENT
• Introduction
• How a heat pipe works
• Basic components of Heat pipe
• Types of Heat pipes
• Advantages of Heat pipes
• Heat pipe applications
• Future scope
• Conclusion
• References
WHAT IS A HEAT PIPE?
 A device that efficiently transport
thermal energy from its one point to
another
 Utilizes latent heat of vaporized
working fluid instead of the sensible
heat.
 Higher thermal conductivity than that
of good solid conductors.
HOW A HEAT PIPE WORKS?
 Working fluid evaporates to vapour
absorbing thermal energy
 Vapour migrates along cavity to lower
temperature end
 Vapour condenses back to fluid and is
absorbed by the wick, releasing thermal
energy
 Working fluid flow back to higher
temperature end
Thermodynamic cycle
 1-2 Heat applied to evaporator through external sources
vaporizes working fluid to a saturated (2’) or
superheated (2) vapor.

 2-3 Vapor pressure drives vapor through adiabatic

section to condenser.

 3-4 Vapor condenses, releasing heat to a heat sink.

 4-1 Capillary pressure created by menisci in wick pumps

condensed fluid into evaporator section.

 Process starts over.

Basic components of heat pipe

The basic components are

 The container
 The working fluid
 The wick or capillary structure
The Container
 It isolates the working fluid and external
environment
 Leak proof
 Maintains the differential pressure across
the walls
 Enables the transfer of thermal energy to
take place from and into the working fluid
 Compatible with both working fluid and
external environment
The Working Fluid
Within the approx. temperature band several possible fluid
may exist……

 Compatibility with wick and wall material

 Good thermal stability

 Wettability of wick and wall materials

 High latent heat

 High thermal conductivity

 Low liquid and vapour viscosity

 High surface tension

Choosing the Working Fluid
CHI (1976) developed a parameter of
gauging the effectiveness of a working fluid
called ‘transport factor’

N = ρσ∆Hvap/ η

ρ= density of liquid
σ= surface tension
∆Hvap = latent heat of vaporization of liquid
η = viscosity of liquid
The Wick
 Its like a sponge
 It facilitates return from the evaporator
from the condenser
 Main purpose is to generate the capillary
pressure
 It distributes the liquid around the
evaporator section of heat pipe
 Provide liquid flow even against gravity
 Liquid flow in a wick due to capillary
action
Types of Heat Pipes
 Thermo syphon
 Gravity assisted wickless heat pipe
 Gravity is used to force the condensate back into the
evaporator
 Condenser must be above the evaporator section, always

 Leading edge
 Placed in the leading edge of hypersonic vehicles to cool
high heat fluxes near the wing leading edge
 Rotating and revolving
 Condensate returned to the evaporator through
centrifugal force
 No capillary wick required
 Used to cool turbine components and armature for
electric motor

 Cryogenic
 Low temperature heat pipe
 Used to cool optical instruments in space

 Flat plate
 Much like traditional cylindrical heat pipes but are
rectangular and used to cool semiconducters
 Micro Heat pipes
 Small heat pipes that are noncircular and use angled
corners as liquid arteries.
 Characterised by equation : Rc/Rh > or = 1
Rc is capillary radius

Rh is hydraulic radius of the flow channel

 Employed in cooling semiconductors(improve thermal
control), laser diodes, photovoltaic cell, medical devices
 Variable conductance
 Allows variable heat fluxes into evaporator while its
temperature remains constant

 By pushing a non-condensable gas into the condenser

when heat fluxes are low

 Moving the gas out when the heat fluxes are high,
thereby increasing condenser area.
 Advantages of heat pipes
 Very high thermal conductivity: Less
temperature difference needed to transport heat
than traditional materials resulting, in low
thermal resistance
 Power flattening: A constant condenser heat flux
can be maintained while the evaporator
experiences variable heat fluxes
 Efficient transport of concentrated heat
 Temperature control: The evaporator and
condenser heat flux can remain nearly
constant(at Tsat ) while heat flux in
evaporator may vary.
 Geometry control: The evaporator and
condenser can have different areas to fit
variable area spaces.
 High heat flux input can be dissipated with
low heat flux outputs only using forced or
natural convection.
Applications
 Electronics cooling: Small high performance
components cause high heat fluxes and high
heat dissipation demands used to cool
transistors and high density semiconductors.
 Aerospace: Cool satellite solar array, as well
as shuttle leading edge during reentry.
 Heat exchangers: Power industries use
heat pipe heat exchangers as air heaters
on boilers.
 In solar thermal water heating
 Other applications: Production tools,
medicine and human body temperature
control, engines and automotive industry.
Future scope and developments
 Use of Nano fluids as working fluids
 Composite wick optimization and wick coatings
 Binary fluid heat pipes
 Research on Oscillating heat pipes
 Research on reducing the resistance
contribution(30%) in cooling systems
 Thin heat pipe solutions with higher carrying
capacity needed.
Conclusion
 Heat pipe is a thermal super conductor
 They can transfer energy 100 times more
than available best conductive materials
because of negligible temperature
gradients exist in heat pipe.
 No pumps required as liquid medium is
being transported because of capillary
effects.
 Modern era device to overcome critical
heat dissipation problem.
References
 “Heat pipes “, Fifth Edition, D.A. Reay
 “Principles of heat transfer” by Mark S.
Bohn
 www.electroniccooling.com
 www.wikipedia.com
 www.google.com