Experimental investigation on performance of a rotating closed loop pulsating heat pipe

Pulsating heat pipes (PHPs) are interesting heat transfer devices. Their simple, high maintaining, and cheap arrangement has made PHPs very efficient compared to conventional heat pipes. Rotating closed loop PHP (RCLPHP) is a novel kind of them, in which the thermodynamic principles of PHP are combined with rotation. In this paper, effect of rotational speed on thermal performance of a RCLPHP is investigated experimentally. The research was carried out by changing input power (from 25 W to 100 W, with 15 W steps) and filling ratio (25%, 50%, and 75%) for different rotational speeds (from 50 rpm to 800 rpm with an increment of 125 rpm). The results presented that at a fixed filling ratio, thermal resistance of RCLPHP decreased with increasing heat input applied to evaporator. Above a certain range of heat input, probability of partial dry-out of evaporator existed, which led into thermal performance deterioration of RCLPHP. Moreover, thermal resistance of RCLPHP decreased with increasing rotational speed and probability of partial dry-out in the evaporating section reached to its least amount. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.