Modeling of Thin Liquid Film in Grooved Heat Pipes

Abstract

Axially grooved heat pipes are devices used mainly to dissipate heat flow through the latent heat of phase change of a fluid at a saturation state. Part of the heat injected at the evaporator flows through a micro-region where the meniscus remains hung at the top of each groove. This article presents a steady-state model built to study the heat and mass transfers in this zone. A parametric study has been performed on aluminum/ammonia heat pipes, mainly used for satellite thermal control, and it led to interesting results, especially regarding the incidence of the radius of curvature of the meniscus and the influence of temperatures on the transfers occurring in the problem.