NUMERICAL SIMULATION ON FLOW AND HEAT TRANSFER IN OSCILLATING HEAT PIPES

Abstract

In order to predict the heat transport capability of oscillating heat pipes (OHPs), a mathematical and physical model of OHP was built to simulate the process of flow and heat transfer in vertical bottom heating mode. Water was used as working fluid. Mixture model in FLUENT was used for two-phase flow numerical simulation. The result showed that the numerical simulation was successful to reproduce the behavior of the internal flow of OHP, including vapor generation in evaporation section, oscillation phenomena caused by the pressure difference and heat transfer due to oscillation. The quasi periodic thermal oscillation with the same characteristic frequency for both evaporation section and condensation section, indicated that heat transfer due to oscillation. Comparing with the experimental tests, the simulation results agreed with the experimental records fairly well. It was found the simulation could predict the heat transport capability of OHPs successfully.