Development of heat transfer measurement techniques for pulsating heat pipe investigations

• Grant number: 17/25558-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2018
• End date: July 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Mechanical Engineering - Transport Phenomena
• Principal Investigator: Cristiano Bigonha Tibirica
• Grantee: Pedro Guilherme Soares Vieira
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 16/09509-1 - Phase change heat transfer processes of high performance applied to solar energy recovery, AP.TEM

Abstract

This undergraduate research proposal aims to expand the knowledge about pulsating heat pipes by the Research Group on Heat Transfer of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the School of Engineering of São Carlos - USP in the context of phase change processes within microchannels. Pulsating heat pipes are a specific type of heat pipes in which there in no need to use a specific capillary structure to return the liquid to the evaporation section. In these cases, the return of liquid occurs also through oscillatory movements of the liquid, due to nucleation and condensation forces, that become important in flow with small diameters tubes. In this project, the objective is the experimental measurement of the heat transfer coefficient and the mass flow inside pulsating heat pipes in different experimental conditions. For this purpose, it will be built a test facility equipped with temperature, pressure, infrared camera and high-speed camera transducers. The measured values of the heat transfer coefficient will be compared with values predicted by phase change heat transfer correlations. At the end of this work, it is expected new original data of heat transfer measurement in pulsating heat pipes and results of correlations performance for the calculation of heat transfer, thus allowing optimized tools selection and development for the design of pulsating heat pipes. (AU)