Experimentation and CFD analysis of sintered wick heatpipe

Heatpipe is a device employs with transfer of heat between two solid interfaces. This is a sealed vessel with working fluid flowing in its inner diameter for the transfer of heat between one point to another. Heatpipe is one of the efficient ways of removing heat and is used in various cooling applications. In this paper experimental and numerical analysis on sintered copper wick heatpipe is investigated. Sintered wick heatpipes work under capillary actions with the presence of wick. These types of heatpipes are used in terrestrial applications. Experimentation and CFD analysis will be done at different inputs ranging from 100W to 300W. Experimentation is conducted and analyzed for thermal efficiency, thermal resistance and heat transfer coefficient at 0.0148 kg/s flowrate. Variation of heat transfer coefficient, thermal resistance, evaporator and condenser temperature are measured at different heat inputs and calculated. It is observed that when heat input is increased heat transfer coefficient is increased but thermal resistance is decreased. Modelling and simulation of sintered copper wick heatpipe is done by using ANSYS FLUENT and the thermal performance of heatpipe is investigated. The design parameters and boundary conditions are taken from the experimentation for the analysis. The temperature, velocity and pressure variations are found. Also, the experimentation and CFD results are compared. The highest thermal efficiency obtained is 90.97% for the heat input of 204W. Maximum heat transfer coefficient is 6203.77(W/m2k) for 290W of heat input.