Analysis of the Evaporating Characteristics of the Grooved Micro Heat Pipe with Alkali Metals as Working Fluid

This paper has built a mathematical model for the evaporating characteristics of the grooved micro heat pipe's thin film region and computed them in a specific working condition. The evaporating model of Wayner was employed in this mathematical model. The results from computation showed, for the H2O and NH3 as working fluid, at the beginning of the thin film region, the heat flux raised rapidly to a peak value and then declined to almost 0 also rapidly in a very short distance. Differently, for the Na and K as working fluid, the heat flux raised quickly but declined slower. Therefore, the alkali metals working fluids had larger area of high heat flux covered. The results indicated that the alkali metals working fluid has better evaporating characteristics for the high-temperature heat pipe than normal working fluids.