Experimental Investigation of Flat Heat Pipe for Cooling System Using Cross-flow Heat Exchanger

Penyelidikan Eksperimen Ke Atas Paip Haba Rata Untuk Sistem Penyejukan Menggunakan Penukar Haba Aliran Silang

Abstract

Nowadays, advanced technology that has been introduced is beneficial in every aspect of human life. Despite the advantages, the technology also brings some disadvantages, especially to the environment, for example, high heat dissipation due to the increase in operating wattage and power. Thus, a study on heat management is necessary to provide a better cooling system to sustain the performance of the technology. The purpose of this experiment is to fabricate a flat heat pipe to investigate the cooling effect when R-134a is used as the working fluid powered by 750W of a resistance heater. The heat pipe comprises a copper container that is sealed and contains a working fluid, along with a heat exchanger. It can be divided into three distinct sections: the evaporator section, the adiabatic section, and the condenser section.  The flat heat pipe is a part where it receives the heat and lets the evaporation process take place while the heat exchanger is where the condensation process occurs. Meanwhile, in the adiabatic section, a crossflow heat exchanger is designed so that two fluids flow perpendicular to one another. The operating pressure inside the heat pipe is vacuum pressure to make the boiling temperature of working fluid occur at a lower temperature. The heat pipe was studied experimentally using Refrigerant 134a compared to water as the working fluids and tested with three different pressures. Water is also used as a cooling medium to transport thermal energy. From the experiment, the data are collected from six points attached to the heat pipe. At the end of the study, results of different temperatures between two endpoints of the heat exchanger are collected to determine the heat transfer efficiency. The efficiency of thermal energy is then compared with the same experimental study but using different designs of heat exchangers.