Abstract:

The conventional pulsating heat pipe (PHP）does not work or work at low efficiency at the inclination angle of 0° (horizontal PHP), which limits its application greatly.In this study, 4 PHPs with turn number of 3 are fabricated and tested.They are filled with deionized water with a filling factor of 50%. Three PHPs are inserted with nickel-chrome wires in the tubes, among which one PHP has a wire with a diameter of 0.7 mm, another with 0.5 mm, and the third has two wires of 0.35 mm.The length of wires is the same as that of PHPs.It is found that PHPs with wires are less sensitive to the inclination angle, easier to start at horizontal position, and operate more stably.Thus the heat transfer performance of horizontal PHP is improved greatly.The position of wire in the copper tube is also investigated, which may influence the mode of heat transfer.