THERMAL PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT OF THERMOSYPHON HEAT PIPE WITH BINARY WORKING FLUIDS

Thermal performance of a thermosyphon heat pipe using ethanol-water and TEG-water with variations of parameters such as the mixture content, the pipe diameter, and the working temperature have been studied in this research work. From the experiments, it is found that at low temperature of heat source (less than 80C), the ethanol-water mixture has a higher heat transfer rate than that of water and close to that of pure ethanol. In the case of TEG-water mixture, the heat transfer rate of the thermosyphon varies with the content of TEG in the mixture, and it is found that TEG in the mixture can increase the critical heat flux due to the flooding limit in a small thermosyphon. The boiling equation of Rohsenow and the condensation equation of Nusselt are modified to predict the heat transfer coefficients inside the thermosyphon. For the mixtures, the weighted average of the heat transfer coefficient of each component can be used to predict the total heat transfer coefficient. Furthermore, it is found that Faghriʹs equation can be used to predict the critical heat flux due to the flooding limit of the thermosyphon with the binary mixtures.