APPLICATIONS OF HEAT PIPE

NAUPADA MANIKANTA
17TS06010
M.TECH TSE
IIT BBS
INTRODUCTION
HEAT PIPE
It is a closed evaporator-condenser system consisting of a
sealed, hollow tube whose inside walls are lined with wick
material. It is a simple construction that makes a heat pipe to
allow high heat transfer rates over considerable distances,
with minimum temperature drops.
Operation Principle of Heat pipe
Heat applied at evaporator section conducted through
the pipe wall and wick, where heat vaporizes the working
fluid. Then vapor drives through adiabatic section to the
condenser where vapor releases heat to heat sink. Due to
capillary pressure created by the menisci in the wick pumps
the condensed fluid back to the evaporator section.
Advantages of Heat pipe

• Heat transfer can takes place even temperature

difference is less this is due very high thermal
conductivity of heat pipe
• No external power input is required
• Minimum maintenance and periodic cleaning is
required
• Long life since there is no moving parts in heat pipe
no wear out. Protective coating is necessary against
corrosion
Types of Heat pipes
Thermosyphon Leading edge
Rotating and revolving
Micro Heat pipe

Flat Plate
Variable conductance
Aerospace
• Heat pipes used for space craft cooling and thermal
stabilization due to their low weight, zero maintenance
and reliability.
• Structural isothermal operation is an important
operation in aerospace applications.
• During orbit, from fixed point observations one side of
space craft is exposed to solar radiation other side is not
so heat pipes are used in space craft to transport heat
from the side that is exposed radiation to cold side in
order to equalization of the structure.
• Heat pipes are also used to dissipate heat generated by
electronic components in satellite.
• Heat pipes are attached to the leading edges of wings of
hypersonic vehicles
 Agriculture
• In aeroponic system the evaporator section of heat pipe
removes heat from the nutrient solution that flows out the
chamber. There for outlet temperature of solution from the
evaporator section is decreased. In this system heat pipe can be
used to reduce the heat generated in the green house, thus
reducing the cooling load of the evaporative cooling.
Electronic Components
• One of the largest applications of heat pipe technology is
the cooling of electronic components such as CPUs, circuit
boards, and transistors
• For example the CPU of PC is one of the most important
part. This is becoming more compact, more efficient and
faster. This is leads to higher heat density, resulting higher
CPU temperature and causes failure of chip. An extruded
aluminum heat sink is a conventional method to keep CPU
from overheating. This is efficient method in terms of unit
price, weight and performance. But, as computer becomes
smaller, the ability of heat sink to effective cooling
becomes insufficient to meet demands, chiefly because of
insufficient space. The use of heat pipe in such situations
has good advantages
Heat Exchangers
• Heat pipe heat exchangers(HPHE) used for controlling
humidity in air conditioning systems.
• The purpose of HPHE is to recover heat from warm outside air
to reheat the air stream, there by minimizing the heating
costs. Also the evaporator of HPHE acts as a precooler to the
warm outdoor air before it reaches the air conditioner, thus
enhancing the effectiveness of the cooling coil.
• The concept of HPHE can be used thermal power industry like
it is used to preheat air used in combustion of fuel in boiler.
This is done by recovering the heat from exhaust gases by heat
pipe.
In oven and furnaces
• The transfer heat to the oven was produced by the
evaporation and condensation of the working fluid in the
closed heat pipe systems which transferred the heat but
not the combustion products
• Using heat pipes advantages are : uniform oven
temperature and savings of up to 25 % of the fuels
normally consumed.
Medical Applications
• Some electro surgery devices generate heat from
the intense friction of the blade contacting tissue
during the procedure. The blade temperature
may increases.
• excessive blade tip temperatures can force
surgeons to temporarily halt procedures, waiting
for the blade tip to cool in order to prevent
burning of unintended tissue.
• To accelerate heat dissipation from the tips, heat
pipes are highly desirable.
• Cryogenic heat pipes can also safely and
precisely transfer cold for various medical
applications. For example, a cryogenic heat
pipe can be used to freeze tissue both inside
the body and on the skin surface.
Cutting Tools
• Heat pipes are embedded in tools to reduce cutting
tools temperatures and increases the life of the tool
References
• http://www.celsiainc.com
• http://www.frostytech.com
• Heat Pipe for Aerospace Applications—An Overview
K.N.Shukla
• Heat Pipes for Computer Cooling Applications by Mohamed
H.A. Elnaggar and Ezzaldeen Edwan
• https://www.thermalfluidscentral.org