BOUNDARY ELEMENT APPROACH TO TRANSIENT HEAT PIPE ANALYSIS

摘要

A transient heat pipe was modeled by a quasi steady state one-dimensional vapor flow and a transient two-dimensional wad and wick hear conduction. The assumption of quasi steady state vapor was based on the fact that the vapor dynamics have a much smaller timescale than the wall conduction. A boundary element method was proposed to solve the transient two-dimensional heat conduction problem. The vapor flow dynamics was solved by a numerical approach, including two iterative ''estimate-correction'' processes. Comparisons with previous experimental and numerical studies verified the model and the solution methods. This work provides an effective means of transient heat pipe analysis. [References: 18]