A detailed overview of heat pipes is presented in this paper, including a historical perspective, principles of operations, types of heat pipes, heat pipe performance characteristics, heat pipe limitations, heat pipe frozen startup and shutdown, heat pipe analysis and simulations, and various applications of heat pipes. Over the last several decades, several factors have contributed to a major transformation in heat pipe science and technology . The first major contribution was the development and advances of new heat pipes, such as loop heat pipes, micro and miniature heat pipes, and pulsating heat pipes. In addition, there are now many new commercial applications that have helped contribute to the recent interest in heat pipes, especially related to the fields of electronic cooling and energy. For example, several million heat pipes are now manufactured each month since all modern laptops use heat pipes for CPU cooling. Numerical modeling, analysis, and experimental simulation of heat pipes have also significantly progressed due to a much greater understanding of various physical phenomena in heat pipes, as well as advances in computational and experimental methodologies.

http://m.thermalfluidscentral.org/journals/index.php/Heat_Pipes/article/view/360/362

Heat pipes: review, opportunities and challenges

A combined numerical and experimental study is performed to analyze the feasibility of using heat pipe cooling in drilling applications. A parametric study is conducted to analyze the effect of different geometrical parameters expected for a heat pipe drill configuration, such as depth of the heat pipe within the drill, heat pipe diameter, heat flux input magnitude and length of the heat input zone. In this model, it is assumed that the drill is subjected to a static heat source which verifies the analysis and feasibility of using heat pipe cooling in drilling operations. The performance of the heat pipe drill model is approximated using a solid cylinder model of pure conduction. To validate the assumptions, numerical results are compared with experimental data that are based on the solid cylinder model. Both the numerical and experimental studies show that the use of a heat pipe in a drill can reduce the temperature field significantly. The results of this study can be used to define geometrical parameters for ‘optimal’ design and the setup for further analysis.

Investigation of heat pipe cooling in drilling applications. Part I: preliminary numerical analysis and verification

Experimental investigation on the heat transfer characteristics of axial rotating heat pipes

Fluid flow and heat transfer model for high-speed rotating heat pipes

A detailed transient numerical simulation of rotating heat pipes is presented. This two-dimensional, axisymmetric formulation accounts for the thin liquid condensate film on the inner surface of the rotating pipe wall, the vapor flow in the vapor space, and the unsteady heat conduction in the pipe wall. The thin liquid film is coupled to the vapor velocity at the liquid-vapor interface, and the effects of the vapor pressure drop and the interfacial shear stress are included in the Nusselt-type condensation analysis. 12 refs., 7 figs.

T.C. Daniels

Papers

Investigations of the factors affecting the performance of a rotating heat pipe