Investigation of the performance of heat pipes used as capillary pumps

摘要

This paper describes the investigation being performed by the Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics and Energy (LFME) in order to test the performance of heat pipes as capillary pumps. This investigation is part of the EU funded research project TRI-GEN EGD that aims in the development of a novel Tri-generation Electrogasdynamic converter system. The capillary pump will be used to pump the working fluid of the system using external waste heat. Furthermore, since the capillary pump has no moving parts it will provide the system with greater reliability. To this end, a Capillary Pumped Loop (CPL) experimental setup was designed and constructed by LFME. A CPL is a closed loop system that pumps liquid by passive means, based on the operating principles of heat pipes. Specifically capillary forces are generated on a porous structure that exists in the evaporation section and is responsible for pushing the working fluid from a high temperature source to a low temperature sink. In this paper the experimental setup constructed as well as the experimental procedure followed are described and preliminary results are presented.