Design and experimental study on a hybrid flexible oscillating heat pipe

In this paper, a hybrid flexible oscillating heat pipe (FOHP), characterized by a hot/cold-end length of about 1.07 m, with the adiabatic section made of fluororubber materials and heating/cooling sections made of micro-grooved copper tubes was designed and fabricated. Deionized water was used as the working fluid at volumetric filling ratios of 50%, 60% and 70%. The thermal performance of FOHP with different structural styles created by the deformation of adiabatic section and changing the spatial arrangement of evaporator and condenser were experimental tested and compared. Results show that the FOHP could function well and exhibited highly spatial flexibility and acceptable heat transfer performance. The bending of adiabatic section partially degrades the start-up and heat transfer characteristics of FOHP, largely depend on the deformation extent. The FOHP provides a promising solution for the thermal management of some spatial complicated energy utilization systems. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.