FLOW BEHAVIOR IN A PARALLEL-TUBE HEAT TRANSPORT DEVICE ANALYZED BY USING IMAGE PROCESSING

摘要

Fluid flow behavior and heat transport rate of Parallel-Tube Heat Transport Devices (PT-HTD) were experimentally investigated using water as a working fluid. In the present PT-HTD, evapo-rator and condenser chambers were connected through five parallel glass tubes of the same inner diameter. The PT-HTD was vertically set and the bottom evaporator and top condenser were heated and cooled, respectively. The entrainment limit of PT-HTD was observed that may mainly be affected by a small tube diameter. However, the heat-transport rate of PT-HTD is independent of the tube diameter. The unsteady flow behavior was always observed in PT-HTD. The number of tubes in which upward flow occurred increased when the heat-transport rate of PT-HTD in-creased.