Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
To cite this article: S. H. Noie , M. R. Sarmasti Emami & M. Khoshnoodi (2007): Effect of Inclination Angle and Filling Ratio on
Thermal Performance of a Two-Phase Closed Thermosyphon under Normal Operating Conditions, Heat Transfer Engineering,
28:4, 365-371
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01457630601122997
In this paper, the effect of the inclination angle on the thermal performance of a two-phase closed thermosyphon with different
filling ratios has been investigated experimentally under normal operating conditions. A series of experiments were carried
out for inclination angle range of 5 90 and filling ratios of 15%, 22%, and 30%. A copper thermosyphon with an outside
diameter of 16 mm, an inside diameter of 14.5 mm, and a length of 1000 mm was employed. Distilled water was used as
the working fluid. The results show that the two-phase closed thermosyphon has the highest thermal performance in the
inclination angle range of 15 60 . A good agreement was observed between the experimental results of this study and those
available in the open literature. The interesting phenomenon of geyser boiling occurred in our experiments for filling ratios
equal or greater than 30%. The geyser boiling puts no limitation on thermal performance of thermosyphon, but it should be
avoided because it damages the condenser end cap due to the slug striking.
INTRODUCTION
Two-phase closed thermosyphons, also known as wickless
heat pipes, are a class of heat pipes in which there is no wick
inside the pipe. It consists of an evacuated-closed pipe filled with
a certain amount of a suitable pure working fluid. The two-phase
closed thermosyphon has three main sections: the evaporator,
adiabatic, and condenser. When heat is added to the evaporator
section, the working fluid inside the pipe vaporizes and carries
heat from the heat source to the condenser section, where heat is
transferred to the heat sink. The condensate working fluid returns
to the evaporator section by gravity force; hence, the condenser
section of the pipe must be located above the evaporator section.
Due to the large latent heat transfer associated with the phase
change processes, a large quantity of heat can be transferred from
the evaporator section to the condenser section with a relatively
small temperature difference.
Address correspondence to Professor S. H. Noie, Chemical Engineering
Department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, P.O. Box 91779489441111, Iran. E-mail: noie@um.ac.ir
An important advantage of the two-phase closed thermosyphon is that its critical heat flux is 1.21.5 times greater
than the heat pipe [1].
Thermosyphons have many applications, such as waste heat
recovery, food industries, power generation, air conditioning
systems, water heater solar collectors, medicine, human body
temperature control, and de-icing the roads [27].
Thermal performance of the thermosyphon is affected by
many factors, such as the type of working fluid, filling ratio
(ratio of volume of working fluid to volume of evaporator section), aspect ratio (ratio of evaporator section length to inside
diameter of pipe), inclination angle (from horizontal axis), operating pressure (or corresponding saturation temperature), and
length of various sections of the pipe.
Based on the available literature, the effect of inclination
angle on the thermal performance of thermosyphons has been
studied experimentally for a selected filling ratio. In the present
investigation, the above effect has been studied for three filling
ratios of 15%, 22%, and 30%, and results were compared with
available data. These filling ratios were chosen in order to avoid
the dry-out and geyser boiling phenomena in the experiments.
365
366
S. H. NOIE ET AL.
fluid. A 410 mm-long water jacket surrounds the condenser section, and cooling water flows through the annular passage of
the jacket. The water inlet and outlet temperatures of the jacket
were measured by two digital thermometers, TESTO. A constant head tank was placed two meters above the top of the
thermosyphon and connected to the cooling section via a plastic
pipe. The flow rate of cooling water was measured by a rotameter. The electric heater of the evaporator section was made of a
nickel-chrome (Ni-Cr) wire with a nominal power of 1000 W.
The electric heater was covered by an electrical insulating tape
and rock wool insulation of 32 mm thick. In order to reduce heat
loss to the surroundings, other sections of the thermosyphon
were covered by rock wool as well.
Temperature distribution along the external surface of the
thermosyphon was measured by seven Ni-Cr thermocouples mechanically attached to the surface of the pipe. Thermocouples
were glued by a highly conductive epoxy in the midline between the upper and lower sides of the pipe. In order to reduce
the effect of convection from the cooling water flowing through
the jacket, the thermocouples were mounted on the surface of
the condenser passing through the jacket using small tubes. The
small tubes were welded on the surface of thermosyphon. After
attaching the thermocouples, the insides of the small tubes were
filled by araldite. In addition, low cooling flow rates of water
were used. All seven thermocouples were connected to a datalogger, which was in turn connected to a personal computer for
displaying data.
Three digital thermometers, TESTO, were attached to the
surface of insulation of all three sections to measure the temperatures at the same axial locations. The measured temperatures of insulated surface were used to calculate the heat loss by
convection from the thermosyphon. The operating pressure was
measured by a pressure gauge connected to the upper part of the
thermosyphon.
The accuracy of the measurements was approximately 1 C
for temperatures of the external surface pipe, 0.1 C for inlet
and outlet water, 4% for water flow rate, and 2% for pressure
measurement.
Before charging the pipe, it was cleaned thoroughly to remove
any grease or oil from the inner surface. Then, a mechanical
vol. 28 no. 4 2007
S. H. NOIE ET AL.
vacuum pump was used for the elimination of the noncondensable gases from the thermosyphon. The thermosyphon
was vacuumed down to 0.001 mm Hg. Finally, the pipe was
charged with the distilled water to make it ready for the experiment.
A series of experiments were performed for inclination angle
range of 5 to 90 , keeping FR at 15%, 22%, and 30%.
CALCULATION OF INPUT AND OUTPUT HEAT
TRANSFER RATE
The following calculations were carried out to determine the
input and output heat transfer of the thermosyphon. The actual
input heat to the evaporator section was obtained from Eq. (1).
Q in = VI Q loss
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
h conv. L t
0.387Ra 1/6
Nu =
(5)
= 0.825 +
9/16 8/27
0.492
1+
Pr
367
C = 0.538
Experimental condensation heat transfer coefficient was evaluated from the following equation (see [7]):
hc =
Q out
Ac (Tv Tc,m )
(7)
(10)
and C is
(6)
(9)
C = 3.54
D 0.44
i
Lc
D 0.44
i
Lc
D 0.55
i
Le
D 0.55
i
Le
(F.R)0.13
(F.R)0.37
FR 0.35
(11)
FR > 0.35
368
S. H. NOIE ET AL.
Table 1 Heat transfer limits
where
K =
l
v
0.14
tanh2 (Bo)1/4
Q c,90
g(l v ) 1/4
v h f g
2v
= Acr oss
gl2
4
Dc /De
3l L e g2v (l v )
Vt / Dc
2/3
[(4L c /5) + L ac ] + De /Dc
L ae + 3L e /4
3
Ve /Vt Vl /Ve v /l
1 v /l
(13)
Sonic
Flooding
Boiling
Dry-out
22%, 30%
15%
2880 W
1160 W
118 W
2880 W
90 W
80 W
The lowest limit among the four constraints defines the maximum heat transport limitation of the thermosyphon. Because
the input heat (50 W) is lower than all of the heat transfer limits,
the thermosyphon operates without any problem.
3
Effect of Inclination Angle on Condensation
Heat Transfer Coefficient
(14)
S. H. NOIE ET AL.
Figure 3 Output heat transfer rate for three filling ratio with respect to the
inclination angle.
It can be seen that the maximum output heat transfer rate takes
place in the range of 15 60 for all three filling ratios and
heat transfer rate increases with increasing filling ratio.
Comparison of Results
As explained earlier, the experimental results of this work
can be compared with those of Negishi and Sawada [8]. Figure
4 shows the variation of the heat transfer ratio of inclined to
vertical thermosyphon (Q i /Q 90 ) versus the inclination angle for
a filling ratio of 15%. As shown in Figure 4, a good agreement
(around 2% on average) was observed between the results of the
two studies.
Geyser Boiling
An interesting phenomenon happened during the experiments
for FR 30%. During a specific period, shock occurred and
the thermosyphon vibrated vigorously. At this moment, the out-
369
Figure 5 Variation of the outlet jacket water temperature and the adiabatic
temperature.
CONCLUSIONS
The effect of the inclination angle and liquid filling ratio on
thermal performance of thermosyphon has been investigated under normal operating conditions experimentally. Based on these
results, the following conclusions have been reached:
Figure 4 Comparison of the results of this study with those of Negishi and
Sawada [8] for FR = 15%.
370
S. H. NOIE ET AL.
NOMENCLATURE
A
Ac
Across
Ae
Av
Bo
C
cp
c p,w
cv
Dc
De
Di
FR
g
hc
h conv.
h fg
I
k
K
L ac
L ae
Lc
Le
Lt
m
Nu
Pr
Q c,i
Q c,90
Q c,
Q conv.
Qi
Q in
Q loss
Q out
Q rad.
Q 90
Rv
Ra
Ta
Tair
Tc,m
Tf
Ti,w
Tins
To,w
Tv
V
Ve
Vl
Vt
Greek Symbols
l
v
REFERENCES
[1] Imura, H., Sasaguchi, K., and Kozai, H., Critical Heat Flux in a
Closed Two-Phase Thermosyphon, Int. J. Heat and Mass Transfer,
vol. 26, no. 8, pp. 11811188, 1983.
[2] Noie, S. H., and Majidian, G. R., Waste Heat Recovery Using Heat
Pipe Heat Exchanger (HPHE) for Surgery Rooms in Hospitals,
Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 20, pp. 12711282, 2000.
[3] James, C., and James, S. J., The Heat Pipe and Its Potential for
Enhancing the Freezing and Thawing of Meat in the Catering
Industry, Int. J. Refrigeration, vol. 22, pp. 414424, 1999.
[4] Akbarzadeh, A., Johnson, P., Nguyen, T., Mochizuki, M.,
Mashiko, M., Sauciuc, I., Kusaba, S., and Suzuki, H., Formulation and Analysis of the Heat Pipe Turbine for Production of
Power from Renewable Sources, Applied Thermal Engineering,
vol. 21, pp. 15511563, 2001.
[5] Xiao, P. W., Johnson, P., and Akbarzadeh, A., Application of Heat
Pipe Heat Exchanger to Humidity Control in Air-Conditioning
Systems, Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 17, pp. 561568,
1997.
[6] Zuo, Z. J., Fale, J. E., Gernert, N. J., and Goryca, M. L., Heat
Pipe Radiator Analysis, Design and Manufacturing, Proc. 10th
S. H. NOIE ET AL.
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
International Heat Pipe Conf., 2125 September, Stuttgart, Germany, Session C-8, pp. 111, 1997.
Faghri, A., Heat Pipe Science and Technology, Taylor & Francis,
Washington, D.C., 1995.
Negishi, K., and Sawada, T., Heat Transfer Performance of an
Inclined Two-Phase Closed Thermosyphon, Int. J. Heat and Mass
Transfer, vol. 26, no. 8, pp. 12071213, 1983.
Amornkitbamrung, M., Wangnippanto, S., and Kiatsirirote, T.,
Performance Studies on Evaporation and Condensation of a Thermosyphon Heat Pipe, Proc. 6th ASEAN Conference of Energy
Technology, 2829 August, Bangkok, Thailand, pp. 2734, 1995.
Payakaruk, T., Terdtoon, P., and Ritthidech, S., Correlations to
Predict Heat Transfer Characteristics of an Inclined Closed TwoPhase Thermosyphon at Normal Operating Conditions, Applied
Thermal Engineering, vol. 20, pp. 781790, 2000.
Terdtoon, P., Ritthidech, S., and Shiraishi, M., Effect of Aspect
Ratio and Bond Number on an Inclined Closed Two-Phase Thermosyphon at Normal Operating Condition, Proc. 5th International
Heat Pipe Symposium, 1720 November, Melbourne, Australia,
pp. 261266, 1996.
Wang, J. C. Y., and Ma, Y., Condensation Heat Transfer inside
Vertical and Inclined Thermosyphons, Journal of Heat Transfer,
vol. 113, pp. 777780, August 1991.
Shiraishi, M., Kim, Y., Murakami, M., and Terdtoon, P., A Correlation for the Critical Heat Transfer Rate in an Inclined Two-Phase
Closed Thermosyphon, Proc. 5th International Heat Pipe Symposium, 1720 November, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 248254, 1996.
Churchill, S. W., and Chu, H. H. S., Correlating Equations for
Laminar and Turbulent Free Convection from a Vertical Plate, Int.
J. Heat and Mass Transfer, vol.18, no.11, pp. 13231329, 1975.
Lee, Y., and Bedression, A., The Characteristics of Heat Exchangers Using Heat Pipes on Thermosyphons, Int. J. Heat and Mass
Transfer, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 221229, 1978.
Dunn, P. D., and Reay, D. A., Heat Pipes, 3rd ed., Pergamon Press,
Oxford, U.K., 1994.
Gorbis, Z. R., and Savchenkov, G. A., Low Temperature Two-Phase Closed Thermosyphon Investigation, Proc.
2nd International Heat Pipe Conf., Bologna, Italy, pp. 3745, 1976.
371
[18] Shiraishi, M., Yoneya, M., and Yabe, A., Visual Study of Operating Limit in the Two-Phase Closed Thermosyphon, Proc.
5th International Heat Pipe Conf., 1417 May, Tsukuba, Japan,
pp. 1117, 1984.
[19] Negishi, K., Unstable Phenomena in a Two-Phase Closed Thermosyphon, Proc. Symp. on Mechanics for Space Flight, Report
S.P. no. 1, Japan, pp. 257263, 1983.
[20] Negishi, K., Thermo-Fluid Dynamics of Two-Phase Thermosyphons, Proc. 5th International Heat Pipe Conf., 1417 May,
Tsukuba, Japan, pp. 193200, 1984.
S. H. Noie is a professor in the Chemical Engineering
Department, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran.
He received his Ph.D. in 1988 from Aston University
in Birmingham, UK. His main research interests are
heat pipe and its applications, heat pipe heat exchangers, solar collectors, and waste heat recovery. He has
published more than 50 articles in well-recognized
journals, books, and proceedings.
M. R. Sarmasti Emami is a Ph.D. student at Sistan and Baluchestan University of Zahedan, Iran. He
received his masters degree and Licentiate degree
from Sistan and Baluchestan University of Zahedan,
Iran. Currently, he is working on two-phase close thermosyphons and their optimization.