Heat performances of a thermosyphon as affected by evaporator wettability and filling ratio

Abstract

A thermosyphon is considered an efficient heat dissipation device in engineering fields due to its low thermal resistance. The heat transfer mechanisms for thermosyphons at different evaporator wettability and filling ratios are not well detailed. A model considering evaporator wettability in terms of a contact angle is developed to detail the phase change process to explore the heat transfer mechanism for a thermosyphon in this study. The effects of evaporator wettability and filling ratio on the heat performances of a thermosyphon charged with water are investigated. It is observed that the simulated absolute temperatures with a contact angle are in better agreement with the experimental results with an average relative error of 0.15% than the simulation results without a contact angle (0.28%). The results show that a hydrophilic surface causes bubbles to easily depart the evaporator wall, thereby increasing the heat performance, whereas a hydrophobic surface causes bubbles to adhere to the evaporator wall, decreasing the heat performance. Further study shows that a low filling ratio of 12% will result in drying out, but a high filling ratio of 40% will prevent large bubbles from reaching the liquid surface, thereby decreasing the heat performance. The heat performance is best at filling ratios of 20-30% for an evaporator with a hydrophilic surface. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.