A Dynamic Film Model of the Pulsating Heat Pipe

Abstract

This article deals with the numerical modeling of the pulsating heat pipe (PHP) and is based on the film evaporation/condensation model recently applied to the single-bubble PHP (Das et al., 2010, “Thermally Induced Two-Phase Oscillating Flow Inside a Capillary Tube,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 53(19–20), pp. 3905–3913). The described numerical code can treat the PHP of an arbitrary number of bubbles and branches. Several phenomena that occur inside the PHP are taken into account: coalescence of liquid plugs, film junction or rupture, etc. The model reproduces some of the experimentally observed regimes of functioning of the PHP such as chaotic or intermittent oscillations of large amplitudes. Some results on the PHP heat transfer are discussed.