CFD Modelling and Visual Analysis of Heat Transfer and Flow Pattern in a Vertical Two-Phase Closed Thermosyphon for Moderate-Temperature Application

Abstract

A heat pipe is an energy-efficient heat transfer device that relies on evaporation and condensation processes for energy transfer. The main purpose of this study is to simulate a two-phase closed thermosyphon, at moderate temperature, that can be used in industrial applications such as steam power plants. After creating a computational network in the Gambit software, the thermosyphon is simulated in Fluent software using the VOF model. Special oil is employed as the working fluid. Based on the CFD results, the efficiency of the system reaches approximately 96%, and the thermal resistance decreases to 0.54 K/W. The contours of the boiling and evaporation process at differing filling ratios, ranging between 30–90%, is visually investigated and the best performance is obtained for 30% of the filling ratio in thermosyphon. At higher filling ratios, more giant bubbles are generated in thermosyphon, which can attach to the inner wall of the system and reduce the thermal performance. The steady-state condition is obtained 84 s after the start of the process.

Keywords

• two-phase closed thermosyphon
• CFD analysis
• visualization
• filling ratio
• thermal resistance