Review of Parametric Investigation of Cryogenic Heat Pipe

Abstract

with the advancement in cryogenics, applications like optical sensors, electronic circuitry are devised to operate at very low temperature and thereby efficient heat transfer devices are required to transfer heat through a very low temperature gradient. In such cases even high conducting materials, like copper fail to transfer heat at the required levels as the temperature gradient is not sufficient. Cryogenic heat pipes stand out as a prominent heat transfer device in such low temperature gradient heat transfer without any external power. Heat pipe consists of basic three components, like container, working fluid and wick structure. The various working fluids which can be used in cryogenic heat pipe are nitrogen, oxygen, argon, helium, neon and propylene. Many types of heat pipes are available and the operation of a particular heat pipe for an application is constrained by a number of parameters. The paper deals with the review of various parameters like heat load, use of various working fluids, use of various wick structures, tilt angle and its effect on the performance of heat pipe at cryogenic temperature range.