Thermal evaluation of a heat pipe working with n-pentane-acetone and n-pentane-methanol binary mixtures

In the present study, a set of experiments were accomplished to appraise the thermal performance and heat transfer of n-pentane-acetone and n-pentane-methanol mixtures inside a gravity-assisted thermosyphon heat pipe. Pure n-pentane, acetone and methanol were also tested as the carrying fluid to produce some reference data. The heat pipe was manufactured from copper with length and diameter of 290 and 20 mm, respectively. The effect of multiple factors covering the input heat to the evaporator section, the filling ratio of the carrying fluid, heat pipe tilt angle and also the type of the carrying fluid on temperature distribution and thermal performance of the heat pipe was investigated. The results demonstrated that the thermo-physical properties of the carrying fluid were the key factor controlling the heat pipe efficiency. The vapour pressure and boiling temperature of the carrying fluid controlled the thermal efficiency of the system such that for n-pentane-acetone, the highest thermal efficiency was obtained. Also, it was identified that the filling ratio of the system is a key operating factor such that the value of the filling ratio was small for the evaporative carrying fluid (binary mixtures), while it was large for the non-evaporative carrying fluids. Also, heat pipe tilt angle was impressed by the type of the carrying fluid; the optimum tilt angle was 55 degree for the binary mixtures, while it was 65 degrees for the pure liquids.