HEAT TRANSFER ANALYSIS OF HEAT PIPES USING FEA

TECHNIQUES

A PROJECT REPORT

Submitted by
ABINESH K 962819114004
BENISH Y 962819114014
ROJITH R 962819114036
In partial fulfilment for the award of the degree
of
BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
in
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING NAGERCOIL 629 004

ANNA UNIVERSITY: CHENNAI 600 025

MAY 2023
 ANNA UNIVERSITY: CHENNAI 600 025
BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

Certify that this project report “HEAT TRANSFER ANALYSIS OF HEAT

PIPES USING FEA TECHNIQUES” is the Bonafide work of “ABINESH
K(962819114004), BENISH Y (962819114014), ROJITH
R(962819114036),” who carries out the project work under my supervision.

SIGNATURE SIGNATURE
Dr. N. SARAVANAN, Ph.D., Dr.U.ARUNACHALAM,M.E.,Ph.D.,
Head of the Department Supervisor
Department of Mechanical Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Engineering,
University College of Engineering, University College of Engineering,
Nagercoil. Nagercoil.

Submitted for the Viva-voce examination held on ………………………..

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

All praise, glory and honour be to the Lord Almighty, source of all
knowledge for his gracious presence and guidance that enabled as to work with
effort and complete it in time.

We wish to express our sincere thanks and profound sense of gratitude to

Dr. R. VELRAJ, VICE CHANCELLOR, ANNA UNIVERSITY,
CHENNAI for providing all facilities to do our project inside the college
campus.

It is indeed a great pleasure to express our sincere thanks to our Dean

Dr. V.A. NAGARAJAN, Ph.D., for his sincere guidance and encouragement in
all aspects for the project.

We are highly indebted to our Head of the Department of Mechanical

Engineering Dr. N. SARAVANAN Ph.D., for his guidance, support and
encouragement throughout the course of our project.

Its pleasure to express our sincere gratitude to our project guide

Dr.U.ARUNACHALAM, M.E, Ph.D., Department of Mechanical Engineering
for providing necessary information regarding the project and also for his
support in completing the project.

We wish to convey ours sincere thanks to all the teaching and non-
teaching staff of Mechanical Engineering Department. Our heartfelt gratitude
and thanks to our parents and friends for their perceptual support
 ABSTRACT
The goal of this project is to create a three-dimensional cylindrical heat

pipe model and simulate its performance by changing the working fluid and its

material of an incompressible fluid. Using CREO design software the three

dimensional symmetric model is created. To apply numerical techniques to a

couple system with standard levels, SOLIDWORKS Software is employed. It is

well established fact that the numerical techniques perform excellently for a

variety of fluids, heat inputs and materials. The numerical approach is used to

verify the outcome of earlier studies .This project demonstrates the effect of

properties on thermal performance of a cylindrical heat pipe using different

fluids and material. The model is used to explain the evaporation and

condensation effects on heat transfer in the liquid-wick zone and source. The

cylindrical heat pipe's temperature distribution profile, centre line velocity and

centre line pressure due to circumferential heat are obtained from the developed

model.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER NO TITLE PAGE NO

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii

ABSTRACT iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v
1 LIST OF FIGURES vii

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 BACKGROUND 1

1.2 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF HEAT 5

PIPES
6
1.3 BASIC COMPONENTS OF A HEAT PIPES
6
1.3.1 Outer wall
7
1.3.2 Working fluid
7
1.3.3 Wick or Capillary structure
8
1.4 TYPES OF HEAT PIPES
8
1.4.1 Capillary-driven heat pipes
9
1.4.2 Annular heat pipes
10
1.4.3 Rotating heat pipes
11
1.4.4 Gas-Loaded heat pipes
12
1.4.5 Loop Heat Pipes
14
1.4.6 Capillary pumped loop heat pipes
15
1.5 CONSTRUCTION OF HEAT PIPES
16
1.5.1 Heat pipes design consideration
17
2 1.5.2 Heat pipes selection
18
1.6 MATERIAL
19
1.7 HEAT PIPES OPERATION
3 20
1.7.1 Application in solar thermal collector
21
 1.7.2 heat pipes concept in evacuated tube 21
1.8 CLOSURE 22
LITERATURE REVIEW 23
2.1 INTRODUCTION 29
2.2 CLOSURE 30
4
METHODOLOGY 30
3.1 INTRODUCTION 30
3.2 OBJECTIVE 31
3.3 USES OF HEAT PIPES 32
3.3.1 Fluids Used in Heat Pipes 32
3.3.2 Heat transfer mechanism in heat pipes 32
3.3.3 Properties of fluids used in heat pipes 32
3.4 CLOSURE 33
MODELLING AND SETUP OF HEAT PIPE 33
4.1 INTRODUCTION 34
5
4.2 SOLIDWORKS FLOW SIMULATION
4.3 GOVERNING EQUATIONS OF FLUID 35

FLOW 36

4.3.1 Continuity Equation 36

4.3.2 Momentum Equation 36

6
4.3.3 Energy Equation 37

4.4 MULTIPHASE FLOW IN FLUENT 39

4.5 LIMITATIONS OF THE VOF MODEL 40

4.6 K-EPSILON TURBULENCE MODEL 41

4.7 CLOSURE
44
MODELLING OF HEAT EXCHANGER
44
PARTS BY SOLIDWORKS SOFTWARE
45
5.1 TUBE
 5.2 EXTERNAL PIPE 46
5.3 ASSEMBLE PARTS OF THE HEAT 47
EXCHANGER 47
SIMULATION RESULTS 47
6.1 CuO as a coolant 48
6.1.1size of computational domain
6.1.2 solids

6.1.3 results 57

6.1.4 results 60

6.1.5 calculate the heat exchanger efficiency 63

6.2 Ammonia as a coolant 65

6.2.1 Model information 65

6.2.2 Results 73

6.2.3 Results 75

6.2.4 Calculate the heat exchanger efficiency 78

7 COMPARISON OF RESULT OF CuO AND AMMONIA 79

7.1 Heat transfer rate 79

7.2 Efficiency 80

7.3 Result and discussion 81

7.4 Closure 81

8 CONCLUSION 82
REFERENCES 83
 LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO TITLE PAGE NO

1.1 Nomenclature of heat pipe 2

1.2 Basic Components of Heat Pipe 5

1.3 Capillary-Driven Heat Pipe 9

1.4 Annular Heat Pipe 10

1.5 Rotating Heat Pipe 11

1.6 Gas-loaded Heat pipe 12

1.7 Loop Heat Pipe 14

1.8 Capillary Pumped Loop Heat Pipe 15

1.9 Heat Pipe using gravity pumping 16
1.10 Heat Pipe using wick pumping 17
1.11 The conventional of heat Pipe diagram 18
1.12 Main regions of the Heat Pipe 20
3.1 Flow chart for Methodology 30
4.1 CREO Model of Heat Pipe 34
5.1 Tube 44
5.2 External Pipe 45
5.3 Assemple Parts of Heat Exchanger 46
6.1 Simulation Setup 48
6.2 Thermal Conductivity of Al2O3 51
6.3 Thermal Conductivity of CuO 51
6.4 Simulation Graph of CuO 58

6.5 Total Temperature values of Al2O3&Cuo 60

6.6 Total Velocity values of Al2O3&Cuo 61
6.7 Total Pressure values of Al2O3&CuO 62
6.8 Density vs Temperature values of Ammonia 65
6.9 Specific heat vs Temperature values of
Ammonia 66
6.10 Thermal Conductivity vs Temperature values
Of Ammonia 66
6.11 Specific heat vs Temperature values for
Teflon 67
6.12 Thermal Conductivity vs Temperature values
for Teflon 68
6.13 Resistivity vs Temperature values for Teflon68
6.14 Simulation graph of Ammonia 74
6.15 Total Temperature of Al2O3&Ammonia 76
6.16 Total Velocity of Al2O3&Ammonia 77
6.17 Total Pressure values of Al2O3&Ammonia 78
7.1 Comparison values of heat transfer rate for
Cuo & Ammonia 80