Investigation of the Effect of Wick's Diameter on Thermal Performance of Heat Pipes

Simulation of a heat pipe was carried out assuming 2D, incompressible, steady state, laminar flow in both vapor region and wick structure. The Darcian model based in porous wick to determine liquid flow in liquid-wick section. The governing equations in vapor region are included; continuity, Navier-Stocks and energy equation. The result of axial outer wall temperature, centerline pressure and velocity magnitude were to be in well agreement with cylindrical heat pipe operation with an error of 0.2% . The effect of variation of wick diameter has been analyzed while the others parameters are considered in fixed values of length 966(mm), wall thickness of 0.85(mm) and wick thickness of 0.356, 0.178,1.424,2.136 and 2.848 (mm). The results showed that the heat transfer coefficient increases by decreases of the wick’s diameter.