Thermal-Hydraulic Characterization of a Flat Plate Pulsating Heat Pipe for Automotive Applications

Abstract

The design and development of pure and hybrid electric vehicles (PEV, HEV) is becoming a major focus area for the automotiveindustryduetotheirhigh-energyefficiencyincomparisontoconventionalvehicles. BatteriesandInsulated GateBipolarTransistors(IGBTs)effectiveoperationplaysakeyroleintheoverallHEVefficiency. Thepresentresearch aims at proposing the pulsating heat pipe (PHP) technology as a promising candidate for the thermal management of electronics mounted aboard vehicles. A semitransparent flat plate PHP filled with ethanol has been characterized at different heat power inputs (up to 100 W) in vertical and horizontal position. Beyond the mentioned orientations, the PHP has been also tested on its edge. Starting from the latter position, the device inclination has been varied during the experiments simulating automotive pitch and roll inclinations. Results indicate that the PHP operated in the edge positionallowittoreachgoodperformancesintermsofstart-upheatinput,thermalresistance,andoperationstability; nevertheless, the dynamic pitch and roll tests show that this configuration may not be the most suitable for automotive applications

Study on application technology of pulsating heat pipe

“…Manno [26] applied the plate pulsating heat pipe to the battery heat management system of the pure electric vehicle, and calculated the heat dissipation performance of the battery pack under different output power and tilt angle, the plate type pulsating heat pipe can keep the temperature of the battery within the working range.…”

A review on Mechanism of fluid flow and Transfer of Heat in Closed Loop Pulsating Heat Pipe

“…It is a unwicked passive heat pipe which has zigzag capillary tubes. It has huge applications in electronic industries [2]- [5], aerospace, Air conditioning [6], automobile technology [7]- [9]. Following are the advantages 1) wickless structure 2) high heat transfer capacity Shang et al [10] 3) simple and compact design which made the device to use in various places in engineering applications 4) costless which lead to good amount of experiments and made the researchers easy to have keen interest.…”