Computational model of miniature pulsating heat pipes
Givler, R.C.; Martinez, Mario J.
The modeling work described herein represents Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) portion of a collaborative three-year project with Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems (NGES) and the University of Missouri to develop an advanced, thermal ground-plane (TGP), which is a device, of planar configuration, that delivers heat from a source to an ambient environment with high efficiency. Work at all three institutions was funded by DARPA/MTO; Sandia was funded under DARPA/MTO project number 015070924. This is the final report on this project for SNL. This report presents a numerical model of a pulsating heat pipe, a device employing a two phase (liquid and its vapor) working fluid confined in a closed loop channel etched/milled into a serpentine configuration in a solid metal plate. The device delivers heat from an evaporator (hot zone) to a condenser (cold zone). This new model includes key physical processes important to the operation of flat plate pulsating heat pipes (e.g. dynamic bubble nucleation, evaporation and condensation), together with conjugate heat transfer with the solid portion of the device. The model qualitatively and quantitatively predicts performance characteristics and metrics, which was demonstrated by favorable comparisons with experimental results on similar configurations. Application of the model also corroborated many previous performance observations with respect to key parameters such as heat load, fill ratio and orientation.