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Experimental Study on Startup Performance of a High-temperature Liquid Metal Heat Pipe with Fins

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Abstract

This paper presents the experimental results of a high-temperature heat pipe with fins at horizontal. The heat pipe tube is designed to Φ25 × 410 mm, two wraps of 100 mesh screen, and filling mass of 15 g sodium. The height and thickness of the fins are 13 mm and 1 mm, and the gap distance between two fins is 5 mm. The wall material of the tube container and fins both are stainless steel. In order to compare the impact of the fins on the startup performance of the heat pipe, a plain-tube high-temperature heat pipe without fins which has the same dimensions is also comparatively experimented. The experimental results show that the finned heat pipe can start successfully and its end of condenser behaves bright red color, which is roughly in accordance with the results of the plain-tube heat pipe. The comparative results also show that the startup time of full startup and the temperature difference between evaporator and condenser after fully starting for the finned heat pipe and plain-tube heat pipe are similarly same. However, adding fins in condenser have a great effect on the temperature rise-rate during starting process and the quasi-steady or equilibrium temperature after startup between the results of two heat pipes.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the financial support from National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (No. U21B2051), and the authors gratefully acknowledge the test helps from W. Li and material welding cooperated by L. Hu.

Funding

This work is supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China under grant number of U21B2051.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics (CAAA), Yungang West Road 17, Fengtai District, 100074, Beijing, China

    Zhi-Hu Xue & Wei Qu

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  1. Zhi-Hu Xue
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  2. Wei Qu
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Contributions

Survey, Design, fabrication of heat pipe, experiment and data analysis, writing draft, project funded and managed by Z.H. XUE; Conceptualization, methodology, guideline, review and revised draft by W. QU.

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Correspondence to Zhi-Hu Xue.

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Xue, ZH., Qu, W. Experimental Study on Startup Performance of a High-temperature Liquid Metal Heat Pipe with Fins. Microgravity Sci. Technol. 36, 52 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-024-10137-5

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