Investigaing thermal performance of a partly sintered-wick heat pipe filled with different working fluids

Heat pipes arc important cooling devices that transfer high heat loads with low temperature differences. In this paper, thermal performance of a novel type of sintered-wick heat pipe, namely. partly sintered-wick heat pipe, was investigated. The heat pipe was filled with degassed water and acetone, as working fluids, and effects of filling ratio, orientation, and heat inputs were tested. Moreover, conditions at which dry out occurred were presented. Thc results showed that the best filling ratio for both working fluids is about 20V). The heat pipe filled with wa.ler has better thermal performance than that filled with acetone; thus, the thermal resistances of the 20% water-filled heat pipe are approximately 7V, 27%, and 75% lower than those of the 20% acetone-filled one in the vertical. horizontal. and reverse-vertical modes. respectively. This novel type of sintered wick heat pipe has good thermal performance in the horizontal mode and can be used in no-gravity conditions, i.e. space applications. (C) 201.6 Sharif University of Technology. All rights reserved.