STUDY ON THE HEAT-FLOW CONTROLLABLE HEAT-EXCHANGER (1ST REPORT) - THERMAL-CHARACTERISTICS OF HEAT-FLOW CONTROLLABLE HEAT-EXCHANGER

To regulate temperature in passive solar houses and green houses, the authors have developed a heat exchanger capable of controlling the heat flow. It has a thermal switch mechanism without mechanically moving parts. It consists of an evaporator, a condenser, a vapor passage pipe, a liquid return pipe having an inverted-U-pipe, and a heater mounted on the inverted-U-pipe. The heat exchanger can transfer, or reduce to zero, heat from the evaporator to the condenser by regulating a slight heater input. The authors have fabricated a model of the heat-flow controllable heat exchanger to examine its thermal switching and heat exchange characteristics, and then compared the obtained results with calculation results. It was clarified that the experimental results agree with the calculation results.