Experimental Study on the Heat Transfer Enhancement of Oscillating-Flow Heat Pipe by Acoustic Cavitation

Abstract

Experimental investigations on the heat transfer characteristics of an oscillating-flow heat pipe with acoustic cavitation in comparison with the ordinary oscillating-flow heat pipe are given in this article. The experimental results showed that the heat transfer rate of an oscillating-flow heat pipe with an acoustic cavitation field imposed on the evaporator section was higher than that without a cavitation field by 8–24.5%. It has been proved that acoustic cavitation can enhance the heat transfer performance of an oscillating-flow heat pipe. However, for the case of acoustic cavitation applied on the condenser section, not all ultrasonic fields applied were effective, and the heat transfer rate increased from −39 to 77%. Further discussion on the experimental results is provided.

Keywords:

• Acoustic cavitation
• Heat transfer enhancement
• Oscillating-flow heat pipe

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work is supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 50606011) and the Key Laboratory of Condition Monitoring and Control for Power Plant Equipment of the Ministry of Education.