Mixed double-diffusive convection in gas-loaded heat pipes

Journal Article · Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 1990 · Journal of Heat Transfer (Transactions of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), Series C); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2910368· OSTI ID:6063651

Peterson, P F ^[1]; Tien, C L ^[2]

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1. Univ. of California, Berkeley (United States)
2. Univ. of California, Irvine (United States)

This study examines mixed double-diffusive convection in gas-loaded heat pipes and two-phase thermosyphons. The numerical simulation and experiments show that steady, laminar natural convection due to the combined effects of temperature and concentration gradients can greatly redistribute the noncondensable gas within the condenser. This change of the gas distribution, however, does not significantly alter the overall condensation heat transfer. This interesting result implies that even with natural convection present, much simpler integral models can still be applied with confidence for the design of variable-conductance heat pipes and thermosyphons.

• OSTI ID: 6063651
• Journal Information: Journal of Heat Transfer (Transactions of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), Series C); (United States), Vol. 112:1; ISSN 0022-1481
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
HEAT PIPES
NATURAL CONVECTION
THERMOSYPHONS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
DIFFUSION
GASES
LAMINAR FLOW
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
QUANTITY RATIO
TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS
THERMOSYPHON EFFECT
TWO-PHASE FLOW
CONVECTION
ENERGY TRANSFER
FLUID FLOW
FLUIDS
HEAT TRANSFER
MASS TRANSFER
420400* - Engineering- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow