PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF PULSATING HEAT PIPE INCORPORATED WITH TESLA TYPE D-VALVE

Abstract

Closed Loop Pulsating Heat Pipes (CLPHP) have emerged as a ground-breaking solution for cooling without any mechanical pumping systems for Micro sized electronics and compact packaging. The heat pipe functions on the principle of capillary effect which promotes fluid motion by interchanging liquid slugs and vapor plugs using latent and sensible heat transfer phenomenon. Incorporation of Tesla Type Valve has become the most promising option to produce larger pressure drop for the flow in reverse direction than forward which induces higher diodicity that ensures more defined fluid circulation towards a preferred direction. A special Tesla-type D-Valve design has been adopted to optimize the existing passive valve performances using methanol as working fluid. This valve has theoretically shown better diodicity mechanism against Reynolds numbers for laminar flow which leads to an increased overall heat transfer co-efficient. Moreover, it decreases minimum 15% thermal resistance than conventional heat pipes of same number of turns depending on the heat input. Although latest studies on Tesla Type D-valves were aimed at proving better diodicity and fluid circulation but limited to single turn design without having any defined mathematical correlation as a heat pipe. This thesis aims at collecting data varying different orientations and fill ratios to compare with a setup of traditional heat pipe of same turns without having any valve as well as developing empirical correlation.