Numerical Analysis of Performance of Closed-Loop Pulsating Heat Pipe
Numerical Analysis of Performance of Closed-Loop Pulsating Heat Pipe
Numerical Analysis of Performance of Closed-Loop Pulsating Heat Pipe
Master of Technology
in
Mechanical Engineering with Specialization in
“Thermal Engineering”
by
Ashutosh Kr Singh
Master of Technology
in
Mechanical Engineering with Specialization in
“Thermal Engineering”
by
Ashutosh Kr Singh
CERTIFICATE
To the best of my knowledge, the matter embodied in the thesis has not been
submitted to any other University/ Institute for the award of any degree or
diploma.
I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude and respect to my supervisor Prof. Ashok
Kumar Satapathy for his excellent guidance, suggestions and constructive criticism. Working
under his supervision greatly contributed in improving quality of my research work and in
gave me an opportunity to work in a new environment of Fluent. This project has increased my
I would like to express my thanks to all my friends, all staffs and faculty members of
mechanical engineering department for making my stay in N.I.T. Rourkela a pleasant and
memorable experience.
I would like to thank all whose direct and indirect support helped me in completing my thesis
in time.
Lastly I would like to convey my heartiest gratitude to my parents for their unconditional love
and support.
Ashutosh Kr Singh
i
CONTENTS
Acknowledgement i
Contents ii
Abstract iv
List of Tables v
List of Figures vi
CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Introduction 2
1.4 Parameter affect the performance of closed loop pulsating heat pipe 7
1.5 Advantages 8
1.6 Applications 8
CHAPTER-2
LITERATURE REVIEW 10
CHAPTER-3
PROBLEM FORMULATION 17
ii
3.1 Introduction 18
CHAPTER-4
CFD MODELING 22
4.1 Introduction 23
CHAPTER-5
CHAPTER-6
6.1 Conclusions 51
References
iii
ABSTRACT
This presents a computational study on the heat transfer characteristics of closed loop pulsating
heat pipe (CLPHPs). However modeling of a CLPHP system in GAMBIT has many challenging
issues due to the complexity and multi-physics nature of the system. So, the closed loop
pulsating heat pipe modeled here has no wick material inside it as it present in heat pipe. The
closed loop pulsating heat pipe has no complex structure so it is to be modeled. Flow
visualization was conducted for the closed loop pulsating heat pipe using ANSYS Fluent 13.0.
With appropriate boundary conditions we can visualize the behavior of the model and make
predictions regarding its performance. Water-water vapor and ethyl alcohol ant ethyl alcohol
vapor are taken as the working fluid and heat flux is supplied at the inlet. Phenomena such as
nucleation boiling, formation of slug and propagation of inertia wave were observed in the
closed loop PHPs. Also the analysis has been done to know the behavior of CLPHPs under
varying supply of heat flux at the inlet (evaporator).for this, the output heat flux is obtain at
outlet (condenser) and find out how the heat flux is varying for different heat flux and the
Keywords— two phase flow, convective heat transfer, boiling and condensation.
iv
List of Tables
Table 5.1 The heat flux output at condenser for different values of heat flux 42
input at evaporator for water-water vapor working fluid
Table 5.2 The heat flux output at condenser for different values of heat flux 46
input at evaporator for ethyl alcohol-ethyl alcohol vapor
v
List of Figures
vi
Fig.5.2(b) Temperature variation inside the channel at t=55 s 37
Fig.5.4 Heat flux vs. time for water-water vapor working fluid 45
Fig.5.5 Heat flux vs. time for ethyl alcohol-ethyl alcohol vapor 49
vii
ABBREVIATIONS & ACRONYMS
Bo Bond Number
D diameter, mm
E ̈ Eotvos Number
Q heat flux, W
Greek symbols
α volume fraction
ρ density. kg/m3
Subscripts
crit critical
liq liquid
vap vapor
viii
CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION
1|Page
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Close Loop Pulsating heat pipes (CLPHPs) typically suited for microelectronics cooling consists
of a plain meandering tube of capillary dimensions with many U-turns and joined end to end.
The pipe is first evacuated and then filled partially with a working fluid. If the diameters of Close
Loop Pulsating heat pipe is not too large, the fluid distributes itself into an arrangement of liquid
slugs separated by vapor bubbles. One end of this tube bundle receives heat transferring it to the
other end by a pulsating action of the liquid–vapor/slug-bubble system. The liquid and vapor
slug/bubble transport is caused by the thermally induced pressure pulsations inside the device
and no external mechanical power is required. The type of fluid and the operating pressure inside
the pulsating heat pipe depend on the operating temperature of the heat pipe. The region between
evaporator and condenser is adiabatic. The heat is transfer from evaporator to condenser by the
means of pulsating action of vapor slug and liquid slug. This pulsation appears as a non-
inside the tube in some of the parallel channels. For Close Loop Pulsating heat pipes (CLPHPs),
no external power source is needed to either initiate or sustain the fluid motion or the transfer of
heat. The purpose of this project is to understand how CLPHPs operate and to be able to
understand how various parameters (geometry, fill ratio, materials, working fluid, etc.) affect its
the evaporation and condensation process, bubble growth and collapse and the coupled response
2|Page
1.2 Heat Pipe
The heat pipe has two region i.e. evaporator and condenser. There is adiabatic region which
separates condenser and evaporator. The heat pipe has wall, the wick structure and the space for
The heat is absorbed in the evaporator region and is carried out through the pipe by the
evaporation of the fluid by absorbing the heat. The high temperature vapor movies toward the
condenser by the action of buoyancy force. At the condenser it rejects the heat by convection and
coverts into liquid droplets. These droplets move to the evaporator due to gravity though the
wick material.
3|Page
1.3 Some special types of Heat Pipe
Micro-heat pipe
Pulsating heat pipe has many numbers of U-turns of tube with capillary diameter. These tubes
are evacuated and partially filled with the working fluid. When the diameter of the tube is so
small, preferably <2mm then the working fluid distributed itself in the form of vapor slug and
liquid slug. When it compare with the convectional heat pipe, it has no wick material inside the
tube.
4|Page
There are two type of pulsating heat pipe.
Closed loop pulsating heat pipe perform better than open loop devices because of the fluid
circulation that is superposed upon the oscillations within the loop. By using the check valve
within the loop, the performance of the closed loop heat pipe is further improved. The
installation of the check valve is very difficult and costly because of the small nature of the
device. So, the closed loop pulsating heat pipe without a check valve is mostly used.
5|Page
One end of the CLPHPs tube bundle receives heat, transferring it to the other by a pulsating
action of the working fluid, generating, in general, a capillary slug flow. While in operation,
there exists a temperature gradient between the heated and cooled end. Small temperature
differences also exist amongst the individual ’U’ bends of the evaporator and condenser due to
local non-uniform heat transfer rates which are always present in real systems. Since each tube
section between the evaporator and the condenser has a different volumetric distribution of the
working fluid, the pressure drop associated with each sub-section is different. This causes
responsible for the thermo fluidic transport. Bubble generation processes in the heater tubes
sections and condensation processes at the other end create a sustained ‘non-equilibrium’ state as
the internal pressure tries to equalize within the closed system. Thus, a self-sustained thermally
driven oscillating flow is obtained. There occurs no 'classical steady state' in CLPHPs operation
as far as the internal hydrodynamics is concerned. Instead, pressure waves and fluid pulsations
are generated in each of the individual tube sections, which interact with each other generating
secondary/ ternary reflections with perturbations. It will be appreciated that CLPHPs are
complex heat transfer systems with a very strong thermo-hydrodynamic coupling governing the
thermal performance. The cooling philosophy draws inspiration from conventional heat pipes on
one hand and single phase forced flow liquid cooling on the other. Thus, the net heat transfer is a
combination of the sensible heat of the liquid plugs and the latent heat of the vapor bubbles. The
construction of CLPHPs is such that on a macro level, heat transfer can be compared to an
extended surface ‘fin’ system. Simultaneously, the internal fluid flow may be compared to flow
6|Page
1.3.3 Capillary pumped loop heat pipe
For systems where the heat fluxes are very high or where the heat from the heat source needs to
be moved far away. In the loop heat pipe, the vapor travels around in a loop where it condenses
and returns to the evaporator. The evaporation in capillary pumped loop heat pipe takes place on
the surface of the wick adjacent to the evaporator wall. Vapor removal channel must be
incorporated in the wick or evaporator wall to ensure that the vapor can flow from the wick to
1.4 Parameter affects the performance of closed loop pulsating heat pipe
Working fluid
Internal diameter
7|Page
Total tube length
Filling ratio
Inclination angle
1.5 Advantages:
The size of the heat pipe varies from 10mm to 15m long.
Thermal conductivity of the heat pipe is several times greater than that of the best solid
conductor.
The relative weight of the heat pipe is very less compare to the solid conductor.
There is no wick material is used in the closed loop pulsating heat pipe as compare to the
heat pipe.
1.6 Applications:
Heat pipe heat exchanger is used to cool the electronic equipment in a closed cabinet.
Heat pipes designed for use in the thermal control of the nuclear reactor.
Heat pipe is used to remove heat from leading edge of hypersonic aircraft.
The objective of the present work is to study the closed loop pulsating heat pipe with a single
turn using ANSYS FLUENT 13.0. In this work, the visualization of the working fluid has been
done. Inside the tube, how the liquid and vapor slug is moving inside the capillary tube. Apart
8|Page
from this, for the different heat flux supplied at the evaporator what is the amount of heat flux is
rejected at the condenser. The above step is repeated for the other working fluid such as water
Chapter 1 gives the brief introduction of heat pipe, closed loop pulsating heat pipe; parameter
affects the performance of closed loop pulsating heat pipe, advantages applications and with the
objective of work.
In chapter 2 I have given a brief literature review about the topic and research which are related
to my present work.
Chapter 3 deals with the introduction of my problem with its governing equations and boundary
conditions.
Chapter 5 deals with the results and discussions of my research work for all the considerer
boundary conditions.
9|Page
CHAPTER-2
LITERATURE REVIEW
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2.1 Literature Survey:
line with the advancement in packaging technology. Some of the key areas requiring synchronal
research for successful thermal management are material science, packaging concepts,
fabrication technology and novel cooling strategies. Focusing on the later area, my work
attempts to analyze the performance of Pulsating Heat Pipes (PHPs), especially suited for
thermal management of electronics. A satisfactory progress has been achieved in the last decade
in the understanding of these devices but quite a few phenomenon of the device operation still
remain unexplored or unclear. However with the development achieved so far, the prospects for
Contemporary trends in thermal management of electronic devices are very demanding and the
limits are being focused in every aspect of design. Market requirements include: (a) Thermal
resistance from chip to heat sink < 1 K/W, (b) High heat transport capability up to 250 W, (c)
Heat flux spreading up to 60 W/cm2, (d) Mechanical and thermal compatibility, (e) Long term
reliability, (f) Miniaturization, and (g) Low cost. These demands pose a simultaneous challenge
of managing increased power levels and fluxes [1, 2]. With such specific boundary conditions in
mind, neoteric cooling/ heat transfer strategies are continuously being asked i.e. development of
pool boiling and jet impingement cooling which are phase change techniques, and more recently
mini/micro channel flow boiling concepts [3]. In line with these developments is the introduction
of pulsating heat pipes in the early nineties [4-7], as a very promising heat transfer technology,
In the Pulsating Heat Pipe, filling results in a natural, uncontrolled, asymmetric liquid-vapor,
plug-bubble distribution (uneven void fraction) in the tube sections, due to the dominance of
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surface tension forces [8]. One end of the CLPHP tube bundle receives heat, after that transfer it
to the other by a pulsating action of the working fluid, which in general generate a capillary slug
flow. Since each tube section between the evaporator and the condenser has a different
volumetric distribution of the working fluid, the pressure drop linked with each sub-section is
different. There occurs no 'classical steady state' in CLPHP operation as far as the internal
hydrodynamics is mattered. In fact, in each of the individual tube sections pressure waves and
fluid pulsations are generated, which interact with each other generating secondary/ ternary
reflections with perturbations [8, 9]. The construction of CLPHPs is such that on a macro level,
CLPHPs may never be as good as equivalent heat pipe or thermosyphon systems which are
based on pure latent heat transfer. However as compared to an equivalent metallic finned array,
at least there will be an advantage in weight. Finally, there is always a reliability advantage
The available experimental results and trends indicate that any attempt to analyze CLPHPs
must address two strongly interdependent crucial aspects simultaneously, viz. system ‘thermo’
thermosyphon (without control valve), a bubble pump and a two-phase loop [11]. The applicable
Looking into the available literature, it can be seen that six major thermo-mechanical
parameters have emerged as the primary design parameters affecting the PHP system dynamics
[13].These parameters are internal diameter of the PHP tube, input heat flux to the device,
volumetric filling ratio of the working fluid, total number of turns, device orientation with
respect to gravity, and working fluid thermo-physical properties [13]. Other conditions which
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affect the operation are use of flow direction control check valves, tube cross sectional shape,
tube material and fluid combination, and rigidity of the tube material, etc. Various flow patterns
other than capillary slug flow, e.g. bubbly flow, developing or semi-annular flow and fully
developed annular flow (in case of CLPHPs) have also been reported which have a significant
effect on the thermal performance of the device [14-19]. A comprehensive theory of the complex
thermo-hydrodynamic phenomena governing the operation of PHPs is not yet available [20].
The internal tube diameter is one of the important parameter which essentially defines a
CLPHP. The physical behavior is attached to the ‘pulsating’ mode only under a certain range of
diameters. The critical Bond number (or Eötvös) criterion gives the tentative design rule for the
2
(Eö)crit crit (1)
Dcrit (2)
This criterion fixes that individual liquid slugs and vapor bubbles are formed in the device and
they do not agglomerate so that phase separation does not occur, if the device is kept
isothermally in a non-operating period. For a given specified heat power, a decrease in the
diameter will increase the dissipative losses and lead to poor performance, while an increase in
the diameter much above the critical diameter will change the phenomenological operation of the
device. It will no more behave as a pulsating heat pipe but will transform into an interconnected
array of two phase thermosyphons. The applied heat flux affects the internal bubble dynamics,
sizes and agglomeration/breaking patterns, level of perturbations and flow instabilities, and flow
pattern transition from capillary slug flow to semi-annular and annular [20, 21]. CLPHPs are
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basically suitable for high heat flux operation. Since the input heat provides the pumping power,
Experimental results so far reveal that there is an optimum filling ratio for proper CLPHP
operation (in the pulsating mode of operation). This optimum, however, is not accurately defined
but generally is a plateau around 40% fills charge. A too high filling ratio above the optimum
leads to a decrease in the overall degree of freedom as there are not enough bubbles for liquid
pumping. At 100% filling ratio, the device acts as single phase buoyancy driven thermosyphon
[18].
If the total heat through input is defined, an increase in the number of turns leads to a decrease
in heat flux handled per turn. Thus, an optimum number of turns exists for a given heat through
input. However, in the present work analysis has to be done for single turn only.
Apart from simplicity of design, one of the strongest factors in favor of pulsating heat pipes is
that their thermal performance is independent of the operating orientation. However there are
some disputing trends in performance with device orientation, or horizontal as well as anti-
gravity (heater-up) operation was not achieved at all [15, 17, 22]. Several results from other
sources for a multi-turn CLPHP suggest that horizontal operation is possible although not as
good as the vertical operation [14, 23, 24]. Some studies indicate near complete performance
independence with orientation [6, 7, 25]. These apparently contradictory and uncomplimentary
results from literature seem to suggest that requirements for an orientation independent operation
are:
(a) Sufficiently large number of PHP turns, which is responsible for a higher degree of internal
(b) A high input heat flux leading to higher ‘pumping power’ and enhanced instabilities,
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(c) These two aspects are not mutually exclusive and must simultaneously be satisfied.
The results of Akachi [6, 7], Charoensawan et al. [26] and Khandekar et al. [27] tend to support
the first hypothesis. They conclude that a certain critical number of turns are required to make
horizontal operation possible and also to bridge the performance gap between vertical and
horizontal operation. The second hypothesis is tentatively supported by the fact that even for
vertical operation, there is a critical minimum input heat flux requirement to initiate self-excited
oscillations [9-11, 16, 17, 20, 28]. In the absence of gravity, this minimum heat flux is likely to
be higher.
The net heat transfer is a combination of the sensible heat of the liquid plugs and the latent heat
of the vapor bubbles. If the internal flow pattern remains predominantly in the slug flow regime
(as in case of OLPHPs and in case of CLPHPs at low heat fluxes), then it has been demonstrated
that latent heat will not play a dominant role in the overall heat transfer [9, 28]. The critical heat
flux decreased as the section length increased, and increased with increase in the latent heat of
vaporization [34].
Experimental results on OLPHPs have been reported in the original patent by Akachi [4-6] for a
power range of 5 to 90 W in top and bottom heating mode with an average thermal resistance
ranging from 0.64 to 1.16 K/W (R-142b). Maezawa et al. [23] studied an OLPHP consisting of
20 turns of copper tube (ID 1.0 mm) of total length 24 m. R-142b was used as the working fluid.
Fill charge and inclination were varied and the temperature fluctuations at the adiabatic wall
section were also recorded. Kawara et al. [29] have undertaken a visualization study of an
OLPHP employing proton radiography visualization. TS-Heatronics Co. Ltd., Japan have
developed a range of PHPs including design variations termed as ‘Heat Lane’ and ‘Kenzan’ fins
[30]. Material combinations, e.g. SS-liquid N2, Al-R142 and copper with water, methanol, R113
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and R142b have been tested. Maezawa et al. [24] have tested another set of OLPHPs with R142b
and water as the working fluid with a filling ratio of 50%. More recently Rittidech et al. [31, 32]
investigated the effect of inclination angles and working fluid properties for an OLPHP made of
copper tubes (ID 2.03 mm, Le = La = Lc = 50 mm, 100 mm and 150 mm, Lt = 10 m). R123,
ethanol and water were used as working fluids with a filling ratio of 50%. However, no work has
been reported till date on investigating the performance of a Pulsating Heat Pipe numerically.
Thus the work to be done here is different from the work done by others as here study will be
made using ANSYS FLUENT 13.0. Mathematical modeling and theoretical analysis of PHPs has
been attempted in the recent past with many simplified approaches. These may be categorized as
follows [8]:
These available models do not actually represent the complete thermo-hydrodynamics of the
So, it may be concluded that the work on CLPHPs to be done here on ANSYS FLUENT 13.0
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CHAPTER-3
PROBLEM FORMULATION
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3.1 Introduction
Analysis of the performance of CLPHPs is done using computational fluid dynamics method.
For this geometry is modeled in 2D in Gambit 2.2.30. A schematic diagram of the geometry is
shown in figure 3.1. The length and the breadth of the channel (here channel instead of pipe is
said as model is in 2D) is 110 mm and 60 mm respectively and the pipe is assumed to be made of
copper. Water and water vapor is taken as the working fluid which flows in the channel of width
2 mm.
After creating geometric models and meshing has done in Gambit 2.2.30. Then the model was
analyzed by varying the wall heat flux at evaporator for a particular filling ratio. The two case of
the working fluid was considered. The working fluid taken in consideration was water-water
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3.2 Governing Equations
Applying boundary conditions, the governing equations for convective heat transfer are as
follows:
The critical Bond number (or Eötvös) criterion gives the tentative design rule for the diameter
2
(Eö)crit crit (1)
Dcrit (2)
In computational fluid dynamics, the Volume of fluid method is one of the most well-known
methods for volume tracking and locating the free surface. The motion of all phases is modeled
by solving a single set of transport equations with appropriate jump boundary conditions at the
Interface. The VOF model can model two or more immiscible fluids by solving a single set of
momentum equations and tracking the volume fraction of each of the fluids throughout the
domain. It is generally used to figure out a time dependent solution but for problems which are
concerned with steady state solution; it is possible to perform a steady state calculation. A steady
state VOF calculation is practical only when the solution is independent of the initial conditions
and there are distinct inflow boundaries for the individual phases. Typical applications include
the motion of large bubbles in a liquid, the motion of liquid after a dam break, the prediction of
jet breakup, and the steady or transient tracking of any liquid-gas interface. In general, the steady
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or transient VOF formulation relies on the fact that two or more fluids (or phases) are not
interpenetrating.
In VOF model the variables and properties in any given cell are either purely representative of
one of the phases, or representative of a mixture of the phase, depending upon the volume
fraction values. In other words, if the qth fluid’s volume fraction in the cell is denoted as αq then
The analysis of the model has been done under two sections.
i) In the first case the water and water vapor is taken as the working fluid with filling ratio of 70
% and the heat flux of 30W, 50W and 100W has applied at evaporator. The initial working fluid
ii) In the second case the ethyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol vapor is taken as the working fluid with
filling ratio of 70 % and the heat flux of 30W, 50W and 100W has applied at evaporator. The
initial working fluid temperature is 300K and the ambient temperature is 298K.
In the work reported here, water and water vapor and also ethyl alcohol liquid and ethyl alcohol
vapor as the working fluid for the analysis. Fluid properties are assumed to be constant with
temperature. The properties of water and water vapor and also ethyl alcohol liquid and ethyl
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The temperature of the fluid is taken as 300K and the convective heat transfer is considered at
liquid vapor
Viscosity
Conductivity
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CHAPTER-4
CFD MODELING
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4.1 Introduction
The invention of high speed digital computers, combined with the development of accurate
numerical methods for solving physical problems, has revolutionized the way we study and
practice fluid dynamics and heat transfer. This approach is called Computational Fluid Dynamics
or CFD in short, and it has made it possible to analyze complex flow geometries with the same
ease as that faced while solving idealized problems using conventional methods. CFD may thus
be regarded as a zone of study combining fluid dynamics and numerical analysis. Historically,
the earlier development of CFD in the 1960s and 1970s was driven by the need of the aerospace
industries. Modern CFD, however, has applications across all disciplines – civil, mechanical,
electrical, electronics, chemical, aerospace, ocean, and biomedical engineering being a few of
them. CFD substitutes testing and experimentation, and reduces the total time of testing and
designing. Fig. 4.1 gives the overview of the CFD modeling process.
The development of affordable high performance computing hardware and the availability of
user-friendly interfaces have led to the development of commercial CFD packages. Before these
CFD packages came into the ordinary use, one had to write his own code to carry out a CFD
analysis. The programs were usually different for different problems, although some part of the
code of one program could be used in another. The programs were inadequately tested and
reliability of the results was often questioned. Today, well tested commercial CFD packages not
only have made CFD analysis a routine design tool in industry, but are also helping the research
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Fig.4.1 Overview of Modeling Process
All established CFD software contain three elements (i) a pre-processor, (ii) the main
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(b) Identifies the computational domain, and
The process of CFD modeling starts with an understanding of the actual problem and
structure, which is the most important portion of the pre-processing activity. It is believed that
more than 50% of the time spent by a CFD analyst goes towards mesh generation. Both
computation time and accuracy of solution depend on the mesh structure. Optimal grids are
generally non-uniform – finer in areas where large variation of variables is expected and coarser
in regions where relatively little changes is expected. In order to reduce the difficulties of
engineers and maximize productivity, all the major CFD programs include provision for
importing shape and geometry information from CAD packages like AutoCAD and I-DEAS, and
The solver is the heart of CFD software. It sets up the equations which are selected according to
the options chosen by the analyst and grid points generated by the pre-processor, and solves them
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• providing initial solutions,
• saving results
Once the model is completely set, the solution is initialized consequently calculation starts and
intermediate results can be monitored at every time step from iteration to iteration. The progress
of the solution process get displayed on the screen in terms of the residuals, a measure of the
The post-processor is the last part of CFD software. It helps the user to analyze the results and
get useful data. The results may be displayed as vector plots of vector quantities like velocity,
contour plots of scalar variables, for example pressure and temperature, streamlines and
animation in case of unsteady simulation. Global parameters like skin friction coefficient lift
coefficient, Nusselt number and Colburn factor etc. may be computed through appropriate formulas.
These data from a CFD post-processor can also be exported to visualization software for better
Various general-purpose CFD packages have been published in the past decade. Important
among them are: PHOENICS, FLUENT, STAR-CD, CFX, CFD-ACE, ANSWER, CFD++,
FLOW-3D and COMPACT. Generally all these packages are based on the finite volume method.
CFD packages have also been developed for special applications. FLOTHERM and ICEPAK for
electronics cooling, CFX-TASCFLOW and FINE/TURBO for turbo machinery and ORCA for
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mixing process analysis are some examples. Most CFD software packages contain their own
mesh generators and post processors. Some popular visualization software used with CFD
FLUENT is a state-of-the-art computer program for modeling heat transfer and fluid flow in
complex geometries. FLUENT provides complete mesh flexibility, solving one’s flow problems
with unstructured grids that can be generated about complex geometries with relative ease.
Supported grid types include 2D triangular/quadrilateral. 3D FLUENT also allows user to refine
FLUENT is written in the C computer language and makes full use of the flexibility and power
offered by the language. As a result, true dynamic memory allocation, efficient data structures,
and flexible solver control (user defined functions) are all made possible. In addition, FLUENT
uses a client/server architecture, which allows it to run separate simultaneous processes on client
desktop workstations and powerful computer servers, for efficient execution, interactive control,
All functions necessary to compute a solution and display the results are accessible in
language called Scheme, a dialect of LISP. The advanced user can customize and enhance the
Geometry creation
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Grid generation
Flow specification
Results
Based on control volume method, 3-D analysis of fluid flow and heat transfer for the helical
coiled tube is done on ANSYS FLUENT 13.0 software. All the above mentioned processes are
done using the three CFD tools which are pre-processor, solver and post-processor.
Geometry of closed loop pulsating heat pipe (CLPHs) is modeled using GAMBIT 2.2.30 as
shown in fig. 3.1. The length and the breadth of the channel (here channel instead of pipe is said
as model is in 2D) is 110 mm and 60 mm respectively and the pipe is assumed to be made of
copper. Water is taken as the working fluid which flows in the channel of width 2 mm.
The fig.4.2 shows the grid of a section of geometry. It depicts that the domain was meshed with
rectangular cells. Grid independence was studied by doing different simulation with taking
different no cells. The quadrilateral grid has generated on all the faces with aspect ratio 1. The
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Fig.4.2 A small section of geometry meshed in Gambit
The flow was transient and turbulence. The fluid density was constant throughout the
computational domain.
Water-water vapor and ethyl alcohol-ethyl alcohol vapor are the working fluid. The fluid
properties (ρ, μ and specific heat) being constant throughout the computational domain.
Except evaporator and condenser part, the other length of the CLPHPs has kept at
adiabatic condition.
For this present analysis the method applied is explained below. All the governing equations
used in present analysis were solved by using ANSYS FLUENT 13.0 finite volume
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commercial code. Implicit first order upwind scheme was used for solving governing
equation. The convergence criterion was fixed such that the residual value was lower than
1e-6. The VOF model is used to analysis. The constant heat flux is supplied at the evaporator
end. This heat flux is varied in different condition. The convective heat transfer is considered
at the condenser end. The remaining length of the pipe is at adiabatic condition. The
turbulence model applied for present analysis was Reynolds stress model. Relaxation factor
have been kept to default values. Refer table 4.1 for values.
dissipation rate
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CHAPTER-5
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5.1 Results and Discussion
Figure 5.1 shows the contour of phases of the working fluid. This contour shows the fraction of
water and water vapor inside the channel. Using these contours the oscillating behavior of
working fluid inside a closed loop pulsating heat pipe has shown. As can be seen from the
figures that vapor slug is moving to and fro at different time interval. It is also concluded that
when the liquid slug and the vapor slug is moving in forward direction, it carried out the heat
from the evaporator and transport heat flux to the condenser end by oscillating behavior. During
this process, there is change of phase from liquid phase to vapor phase and vice versa.
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(b) Position of vapor slug at t= 15 s
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(d) Position of vapor slug at t=35 s
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(f) Position of vapor slug at t= 55 s
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(h) Position of vapor slug at t= 65 s
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(a) Temperature variation inside the channel at t=50 s
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(c) Temperature variation inside the channel at t=60 s
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(e) Temperature variation inside the channel at t=70 s
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(g) Temperature variation inside the channel at t=80 s
Figure 5.2 shows the variation of temperature at different time. The two curves show the
temperature in upper channel and the lower channel. From the figure it is observed when the
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liquid moving in forward direction then it absorbed heat from the evaporator. This is the
reason for the temperature rise in the upper part of the channel near the evaporator end while
the heat flux is rejected at the condenser that why the temperature in the lower part of the
channel decrease. When the working fluid moves in backward direction, again the heat flux
is absorbed at the evaporator by the working fluid. So the temperature increases in the lower
part of the channel.at the condenser, the heat flux is further rejected so the temperature in the
Figure 5.3 shows the variation of pressure inside the channel. In the some part of the channel,
the pressure is too high while in the other part the pressure is too low. This pressure difference
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Table 5.1 shows the heat flux output at the condenser for different value of heat flux input at the
evaporator. The working fluid is taken as two phase fluid i.e. water liquid and water vapor.
From the table we observed that for the heat flux input the heat flux output variation start earlier
Table 5.1 the heat flux output at condenser for different values of heat flux input at evaporator
Time in sec Heat output(W) for Heat output(W) for Heat output(W) for
0 0 0 0
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50 10.46197 10.30404 7.8195
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130 2.965296 3.840414 5.336428
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heat transfer rate vs time for Water
25
20
heat transfer rate(W)
15
Qin=30W
10 Qin=50W
Qin=100W
5
0
0 50 100 150 200
time (s)
Fig.5.4 Heat flux vs. time for water-water vapor working fluid
Figure 5.4 shows the variation of heat flux at condenser with time for different heat flux at
evaporator. It is clearly visible from graph that the heat transfer behavior is oscillating which
Table 5.2 shows the heat flux output at the condenser for different value of heat flux input at the
evaporator. The working fluid is taken as two phase fluid i.e. Ethyl alcohol liquid and ethyl
alcohol vapor. When we compare the data for heat flux out for 30W of heat flux input, we found
that the variation in the output heat flux for ethyl alcohol start earlier than water. It has been also
observed that the fluctuation rate in the case of alcohol is higher than the water. So oscillation is
Table 5.2 the heat flux output at condenser for different value of heat flux input at evaporator for
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Time in sec Heat output(W) for 30W input
0 0
5 15.689
10 12.10302
15 13.53325
20 10.34767
25 6.97627
30 5.595694
35 4.111408
40 3.288454
45 2.32275
50 2.433071
51 2.826646
52 4.168352
53 5.757897
54 6.169416
55 2.679956
56 2.502211
57 4.115772
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58 2.837486
59 1.740256
60 1.872791
61 2.641127
62 3.720674
63 3.610297
64 1.9428
65 1.641023
66 1.598649
67 1.525151
68 1.502425
70 1.352532
71 2.523652
72 2.128292
73 1.276367
74 1.306113
75 1.98288
76 2.465005
77 3.066896
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78 1.336126
79 1.308021
80 1.270359
81 1.323168
82 1.361207
83 1.527749
84 1.747146
85 1.048199
86 1.320493
87 1.130706
88 1.027092
89 1.021945
90 1.229296
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heat transfer rate Vs time for Alchohal
18
16
Heat transfer rate (Q) in W
14
12
10
8
Qin=30w
6
4
2
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 71 73 75 77 79 81 83 85 87 89
Time in sec
Fig.5.5 Heat flux vs. time for ethyl alcohol-ethyl alcohol vapor
Figure 5.5 shows the variation of heat flux at condenser with time for different heat flux at
evaporator. It is clearly visible from graph the frequent oscillation has been attended much
earlier than the water. And also it has observed that the oscillation occur in short interval of time
compare to water.
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CHAPTER-6
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6.1 Conclusion
Through the CFD methodology, this work investigates the flow and heat transfer phenomena in a
closed loop pulsating heat pipe. Effects of heat flux at evaporator and different working fluid
have been also studied. Several important conclusions could be drawn from the present
There is pressure variation inside the tube because of increase in volume of the working
fluid by absorbing heat at one end which causes the transport of vapor slug and liquid.
After a certain time of interval, the oscillating behavior of working fluid becomes more
frequent which causes oscillation in heat flux at the output that means at some moment
Alcohol attends frequent oscillation earlier as compared to water which signifies that
fluid with lower specific heat will give cooling effect much earlier than the fluid with
For higher the value of input heat flux, the oscillation starts in lesser time as compare to
Analysis of CLPHPs is done by taking the different working material like water, R-123
By varying the filling ratio, the above results should be find out and comparing their
results.
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