Experimental investigation of electricity generation from geyser boiling of working fluid during thermal performance of the thermosyphon heat pipe

The following study introduces a novel approach to generating electrical power by utilizing a thermosyphon heat pipe (THP) using geyser boiling of the working fluid. In the initial design of this concept, the geyser boiling in the evaporator causes the induction of a solenoid through the oscillation of a magnet. In this regard, the electricity generation module was designed and optimized through a trial-and-error process to provide the highest electrical and thermal performances of the novel Oscillating Magnet Thermosyphon Heat Pipe (OM-THP) system. The present study examines the relation between the electrical and thermal performances of OM-THP under different heat input and filling ratio conditions. Two filling ratios, 20%, and 40%, were evaluated for the working fluid of water. The heat input was increased from 25 to 250 W. The open circuit voltage value was measured and found to have a maximum peak-to-peak range of 0.3-0.9 V. The maximum average and peak electric power generated are 5.54 mu W and 1.54 mW, respectively. The findings indicate that the thermal resistance measurements of THP and OM-THP exhibit a negligible difference. This means that the thermal performance of the THP is almost unaffected by the installation of the electricity generation module, which is a prominent feature of the electricity generation module devised in this work. In addition, a novel thermal-electric index was developed to identify the conditions under which OM-THP exhibits the highest thermal and electrical performances. This index revealed that the optimal operating condition of OM-THP is a 20% filling ratio and 125 W heat input with a thermal -electric index of 0.84.