Thermo-hydrodynamics of closed loop pulsating heat pipe: an experimental study

The experimental result on the thermal performance of closed loop pulsating heat pipe (CLPHP) is presented. The CLPHP is made of copper capillary tubes, having inner and outer diameters of 2.0 mm and 3.6 mm respectively. The working fluids employed are water, ethanol, methanol and acetone also binary mixture (1:1 by volume) of water-ethanol, water-methanol and water-acetone. For all experimentations, filling ratio (FR) 50%, two-turns and vertical bottom heat mode position was maintained. The lengths of evaporator, condenser and adiabatic section are selected as 42 mm, 50 mm and 170 mm, respectively. The transparent adiabatic section is partially made of glass tube having length 80 mm, for flow visualization. The CFD analysis by VOF model in Star CCM+ simulation is carried out to validate the experimental results. The result shows that the thermal resistance decreases smoothly up to 40W heat input, thereafter reasonably steady. In comparison with all working fluids, water-acetone binary working fluid has shown the best thermal performance over other working fluids used in CLPHPs.