Parametric Influence on Thermal Performance of Flat Plate Closed Loop Pulsating Heat Pipes

This paper presents an experimental study on a flat plate closed loop pulsating heat pipes. It consisted of total 40 channels with square cross section (2 × 2 mm2, 165 mm long) machined directly on an aluminum plate(180× 120×3mm3 ), which was covered by a transparent plate. The working fluid employed was ethanol. As the results, the influence parameters of thermal performance were investigated, such as filling ratio, heat load and operational orientations etc. Filling ratio was found to be a critical parameter, and its effect was rather complicated. According to its values the PHP plate could have four distinct working zones with different operational characteristics and heat transfer performance. The effect of heat load on thermal performance was found to be positive, and in general,increasing the heat load would improve heat transfer performance. In order to analyze the effect of gravity on thermal performance, three different heat modes and total seven tilt angles were tested and compared. Successful operation at all orientations with respect to gravity was also achieved.