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Numerical analysis on thermal hydraulic performance of a flat plate heat pipe with wick column

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Abstract

A simplified thermal hydraulic model is developed to investigate the influence of wick column on the performance of a flat plate heat pipe (FPHP). The governing equations of the FPHP are solved by using the computational fluid dynamics package FLUENT. The temperature, velocity and pressure fields are obtained. The validity of the model is confirmed by comparing the present solutions with the open literature data. The numerical results show that with the increase of the wick column size, the maximum velocity of the liquid and vapor decreases while the total thermal resistance and capillary heat transfer limit of the FPHP increases gradually. The performance of the FPHP may degrade if the wick column is placed inside the vapor core asymmetrically.

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Abbreviations

Q :

Heat transfer rate (W)

A :

Cross-section area (m2)

K :

Thermal conductivity (W/m K)

T :

Temperature (K)

〈T〉:

Average temperature (K)

∆l :

Side length of a control volume (m)

h fg :

Latent heat of vaporization (kJ/kg)

V :

Velocity (m/s)

\( \vec{V} \) :

Velocity vector = (u, v) (m/s)

P :

Pressure (Pa)

K:

Permeability (m2)

q :

Heat flux (W/m2)

h :

Convective heat transfer coefficient (Wm2K)

R :

Thermal resistance (K/W)

r wc,hs :

Ratio of the area of wick column over the area of heat source

Dist :

Distance between the center of wick column and the center of vapor chamber (m)

ρ :

Density (kg/m3)

μ :

Dynamic viscosity (Pa s)

ɛ :

Porosity

in :

Heat transferred from evaporator wicks to vapor

out :

Heat transferred from vapor to condenser wicks

ew :

Evaporator wall

cw :

Condenser wall

i, j :

Control volume index

N :

The number of the control volumes

n :

Normal direction of surface

l :

Liquid/wick region

v :

Vapor region

s :

Solid wall region

∞:

Ambient

eff:

Effective

wc :

Wick

sat :

Saturation

FPHP :

Flat plate heat pipe

hs :

Heat source

cond :

Condenser wall surface

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51275180, 51005079), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, SCUT (No. 2013ZZ017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China

    Longsheng Lu, Huosheng Liao, Xiaokang Liu & Yong Tang

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  1. Longsheng Lu
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  2. Huosheng Liao
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  3. Xiaokang Liu
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  4. Yong Tang
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Correspondence to Huosheng Liao.

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Lu, L., Liao, H., Liu, X. et al. Numerical analysis on thermal hydraulic performance of a flat plate heat pipe with wick column. Heat Mass Transfer 51, 1051–1059 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-014-1475-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-014-1475-1

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