ENGR 103 - Spring 2013 Freshman Engineering Design Lab Heat pipe and Its Application in Cooking Project

Design Proposal
Date Submitted: May 17, 2013

Submitted to: Group Members:

John Speidel, john.h.speidel@drexel.edu Maria Tabbut, maria.tabbut@drexel.edu Luis Castro, lac349@drexel.edu David Williams, dw499@drexel.edu Frank Kivuyo, fk95@drexel.edu

Abstract: A heat pipe is a device designed to transfer heat from hot sources to cold sources or from cold sources to hot sources. The main goal is to implement heat pipe application in a cooking pot in order to increase its efficiency by saving time and energy. During the design of the cooking pot it will be necessary to know the basic thermodynamics processes as well as the performance of the material that will be used in the project. The exterior hollow pipe will be made of copper, and the inner wick will be made of copper-mesh. This will be the fundamental design prototype. During the time of the design, the cooking pot will be built and tested in order to improve the flaws in the prototype. Alterations will be made in the design prototype if suitable, for instance change in the outer hollow pipe from copper to silver as silver is safer for the consumer and will enhance the efficiency of the cooking pot. If this prototype is successful, a remodeled design of this cooking pot can be introduced to the consumer world.

ENGR-103 Freshman Design Proposal

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1.

Introduction With the knowledge of heat pipes and thermodynamics a heat pipe integrated with a cooking

pot will be designed. The goals of the cooking pot will be to reduce the amount of heat lost, as well as the amount of time spent cooking. The materials used for the heat pipe will be from careful calculations and analysis over the course of the design process. Constraints will also be an important decision in designing. There will be mechanical and electrical design costs. The heat pipe will also need to fit the dimensions of a cooking pot and still be able to operate correctly. The objectives are to build a heat pipe that is successfully integrated with a cooking pot which improves heat loss and time spent cooking. Heat pipes use basic thermodynamics principles. The main principle of a heat pipe is the transfer of thermal energy from a high temperature source to a lower temperature region called a sink. There are two ends - hot and cold - in a heat pipe. By providing a heat source to the hot end, the fluid in the saturated liquid phase will evaporate, taking heat in, and the vapor will transfer the heat to the cold end. At the cold end the fluid in the saturated vapor phase will condense, releasing the heat, and return to the hot end by capillary action in the saturated liquid phase to continue the cycle [1]. The design of a heat pipe is broken down into three parts. The first is a vessel that seals the working fluid and capillary wicking structure. This vessel can be made from any pipe, such as steel or copper. Next, inside the vessel is the wick structure. The wick structure enables the working fluid to move from the condensed section back to evaporated section. Finally, the last necessary part in a heat pipe is the working fluid. This fluid is what will be condensed and evaporated inside the heat pipe. This fluid helps make the heat pipe work [2]. Using these key parts of a heat pipe, these parts will be integrated into a cooking pot. This heat pipe will be integrated into a cooking pot design that will reduce the amount of heat loss and time spent in cooking. Heat pipes are typically not used for cooking and this design will be a test for the applicability of if heat pipes can change the way people cook. The cooking pot will be designed by applying the concepts and theory of heat pipes. The heat pipe will be positioned at the center of the cooking pot. An electrical source will also be included. This electrical source will convert electrical energy into heat. This heat will heat the hot end of the heat pipe. The cooking pot will also include a lid that will seal the heat in.

ENGR-103 Freshman Design Proposal 2. Technical Activities

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The major task is the construction of the heat pipe that is centered on the cooking pot. First, will be the designing and testing of the heat pipe. With an understanding of the best materials for the heat pipe, then the cooking pot can be integrated and tested. Once the most suitable heat pipe is created, it will be integrated into a cooking pot. The heat pipe should be molded into the center of the pot. Underneath the heat pipe will be an electrical tape which will generate heat from electricity, then it will be convert the electrical energy into thermal energy. This generated heat will heat the heat pipe and allow for the heat transfer process to begin, which then allows for heat to be released into the thermal cooking pot. Figure 1 below shows the initial design proposal in detail on how the cooking pot will be designed.

Figure 1: Schematics of the cooking pot

2.1 Cooking Pot Design Once the heat pipe is built it will be integrated into a cooking pot. This cooking pot must be sealed tight to insulate the heat. The material the pot will be made of is stainless steel. This material was chosen for its safety in cooking to protect the consumers buying the product. Stainless steel is nonreactive, meaning it will not break down into the food or liquid being cooked with it. The dimensions of the pot will be roughly 14 to 16 inches high for it to be able to fit the heat pipe inside. The width will also be about 14 to 16 inches long and 9 inches wide. These dimensions were chosen, so it could fit all types of food including meat such as beef or turkey. The heat pipe will also be fitted into the bottom of the cooking pot, so there will be a sealed hole at the bottom for the heat pipe to fit in.

ENGR-103 Freshman Design Proposal

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2.2 Heat Pipe Design I. Working Fluid Within the heat pipe, an important factor is the application of the heat pipe is the working fluid. The latent heat of vaporization must be considered with the working fluid as well. The latent heat of vaporization is the energy required to transform an amount of something from a liquid to a gas at a certain pressure. This process often will boil the working fluid at a point below the atomic pressure boiling point. The idea of water was considered as a working fluid. For water as a working fluid, it will typically boil at a low temperature of around 0 C [3]. This is because the heat pipe contains a vacuum allowing the fluid to boil below the atomic pressure. With the ability to boil at lower temperatures, water can be a more attractive working fluid because the transition from liquid to gas can happen quicker as oppose to other fluids [3]. A wide range of working fluids can be used for a heat pipe, but for this project pure water was chosen as the most suitable working fluid. For food to cook, the pot needs to reach temperatures up to 100 degrees Celsius. Water has a temperature range from 5 to 230 Celsius [4]. This is in the perfect range for what is needed to cook food in the cooking pot. When compared to other working fluids water seemed to be the best fit. Liquid ammonia was considered however its temperature range was from -70 to 60 Celsius [4]. Its highest temperature was not hot enough to meet cooking standards. Also, it is extremely crucial to use non-toxic working fluids due to the fact that the heat pipe will be used in cooking applications. So, water again proves to be the best of the working fluids for this project because of its excellent thermal properties. II. Wick (Copper-mesh) Metal copper mesh will be the wick used in the heat pipe. Inside the hollow copper pipe, the mesh will be lined and it will transfer the fluid in the liquid phase using capillary action to heat the hot end of the pipe in order to start a new cycle. Mesh is a very porous material and will be very useful for capillary action. However, the 3

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pores must be small in the mesh to allow an increase in flow resistance and high capillary pressure. To get the maximum capillary pressure the following equation can be used [5]:

Pcap = 2

In the above equation, the capillary pressure is equal to two times the surface tension, sigma (), divided by the radius of curvature in the tube (r). For the mesh in the heat pipe, 20 x 20 meshes rolled up and layered with cloth will be used. A picture of the mesh is below in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Heat Pipe Materials

III.

Vessel(Copper Pipe) A copper pipe will be used as the outside vessel. Copper will be used because it is able to heat up and release heat more efficiently than some other metals. One factor that is important to keep in mind is the thermal conductivity of copper. It is important that the heat pipe is cycling the heat. With the use of Fouriers Law, in the equation below, the appropriate length of the copper can be determined [6].

ENGR-103 Freshman Design Proposal q = (k A dT ) / s

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In the equation above, the conductive heat transfer is equal to the thermal conductivity (k), the heat transfer area (A), and the temperature difference (dT) divided by the material thickness (s). This conductive heat transfer will then be expressed in units of watts. The size dimensions for the heat pipe must be considered as well. The heat pipe must be small enough to fit inside the cooking pot which is 14 inches; therefore it can only be around half a foot long. The diameter of the pipe will be half an inch. Figure 3 below shows the picture of the final design of the heat pipe.

Figure 3: Principle of a heat pipe

2.3 Electrical Design With the heat pipe now created, it will need to be heated up. The best option chosen for the cooking pot will be electrical heat tape. This heat tape will be wrapped around the bottom of the heat pipe. This tape is heated by electricity. The tape can generate the heat necessary to heat the heat pipe. This temperature desired is 200 degrees Celsius at the bottom electrical plug will 5

ENGR-103 Freshman Design Proposal

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be used to heat up the heat pipe. Three tests were performed to obtain maximum satisfactory working condition of the heat pipe. Fouriers Law was used to determine the heat transfer on a cylindrical surface i.e. the heat pipe. The surface area (A) for transferring the heat is directly proportional to the radius of the pipe (r) and the pipe length (l). This gives us the following equation [7]:

Because the exact radius of the heat pipe was known and also knowing that as the radius of the inner pipe and the outer pipe increase so does the heat transfer area, the Fouriers Law equation was used to determine the heat transfer [6].

In the above equation, the heat transfer (Q) is equal to the conductivity constant (k) times the surface area (A), determined above, by the change in temperature divided by the change in pipe radius.

Figure 4: Heat tape being wound on a heat pipe

ENGR-103 Freshman Design Proposal 2.4 Cooking Pot Design

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The final design can be shown in Figure 7. When the cooking pot and heat pipe come together, it will look like the figure below. The cooking pot is made of stainless steel and the heat pipe is centered in the middle of the pot. The cooking pot dimensions are 6in radius and 12 in height. The pot can hold about 4 gallons of water by solving for the volume of the pot and then changing the units. The equation for the volume of a cylinder is in the equation below, where r equals the radius and h equals the height: Volume = To hold the cooking pot and the heat pipe together, holes were screwed into the pot and the section to hold the electrical heat tape container. Then, the heat pipe was put into those holes. To cover up the holes and seal the stainless steel and heat pipe together, epoxy was used. Epoxy can withstand temperatures of up to 550 F, so it would not melt in the application.

Figure 5: Cooking Pot Design

3. Results To make sure that a desirable working condition for the heat pipe were met; multiple tests were performed and each produced different results. The setup of the heat pipe testing can be shown below in figure 8. The heat pipe was held vertically on a stand. On the top part of the heat pipe a sensor was attached to measure the heat coming out. This sensor was connected to a block calibrator that converted the values of the sensor to temperatures. The dryer was the heat 7

ENGR-103 Freshman Design Proposal

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source, getting as hot as 200 C plus to heat the pipe. Aluminum foil was also added towards the bottom of the heat pipe to concentrate the heat.

Figure 6: A detailed image of testing the heat pipe

On the first test and second test, a leakage was found on the copper cap due to the inadequate soldering. The third test produced satisfactory results and the following data and result were obtained. A 100mL graduated cylinder was used to measure the amount of water the heat pipe can hold. The volume of the tested heat pipe measured 22mL of water. This means that the amount of water used in the heat pipe will be one third of the pipes volume, 11mL. The copper was heated for duration of 5 minutes. A record of the temperature was taken at 30 second intervals with a starting temperature of 24.7C. The test was stopped once the temperature had reached the desired temperature of 100C at the top of the pipe, which is a temperature hot enough to boil water. Water from the copper pipe was measured again after the test to ensure no leakage took place. The measurement showed no loss of water. An excel sheet was used to graph the temperature range. Figure 9 below shows the data recorded every 30 seconds. Figure 10 below shows a steady linear increase of temperature as predicted.

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Figure 7: Temperature Data

Figure 8: Graph of Temperature vs. Time

The cooking pot was also tested to see if the goals would be met. The setup for testing began with plugging in the electrical heat tape, to act as the heating source, as well as fill the cooking pot with water to the top. Water was used to see if it would boil. Placed in the water was a sensor that sensed the temperature of the water. With the setup complete, testing could begin. The sensor reading began with an initial temperature of 27.7 C. After 25 minutes of testing, the sensor had reached 33.8 C. The graph in figure 11 below shows the data tested. The temperature difference after 25 minutes was 6.1 C. For the water to reach a desired temperature of 100 C, it would take about 8.5 hours. This time proved to be undesirable to the goals that were trying to be reached, such as decreased cooking time. 8.5 hours will be too long to boil water. Even though the cooking pot failed to give the desired results, the heat pipe inside was still reaching the desired temperatures. The amount of water to boil was just too much.

Figure 9: Cooking Pot Testing Data

ENGR-103 Freshman Design Proposal 4. Future Work

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After a number of tests, it was observed that the heat pipe was not able to efficiently heat the water in comparison to commonly used conventional methods such as the heating the water on a stove top or heating it by fire. The main drawbacks of this prototype were, firstly, the heated part of the copper pipe did not have considerable surface area in contact with the bottom half of the container as it was encapsulated by the steel cup which did reduce its efficiency. Secondly, choosing a large control volume such as the 12 quartz container seemed to also have reduced a hypothetical amount of efficiency in comparison to its smaller surface area heat pipe. Thirdly, the lack of insulation around the heat tape which was wound around the heat pipe could have also reduced the efficiency as some amount of heat was dissipated during the transfer process of the heat from the heat tape to the heat pipe.

Fig 10: Condensation on the lid

Fig 11: Slow condensation on the walls

Future improvements to the project can be made by tackling the above identified drawbacks. To fix the issues of insufficient surface area of contact and ineffective heating of the lower half of water in the container, a longer pipe bend to occupy the base within the pot in a circular design can be utilized. This would make the heating process more efficient by heating the cooler layer at the bottom, as well as providing enough area of contact with the water. Reducing the volume of water heated by choosing a smaller container would enable quicker results. If the amount of heat transferred by the heat pipe can heat up a certain volume of water in 10

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a reasonable amount of time, the volume of the container should be close enough to that certain volume. Otherwise, a bigger heat source and pipe will have to be used to make up for the additional volume of water. Lastly, addition of insulation to the exposed side of the heat tape would aid in the better utilization of the heat produced. Since the heat tape is double sided, the insulation would prevent the loss of the other half of energy produced on the exposed side to a significant degree, and redirect it to the heat pipe making a more efficient connection between the heat tape and the heat pipe. Thus, a higher temperature can be obtained from the heat pipe.

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ENGR-103 Freshman Design Proposal References [1] Heat Pipes, Cooler Master,[online]

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2013, http://odm.coolermaster.com/manufacture.php?page_id=8 (Accessed: April 10, 2013). [2] P. Kew and D. Reay, Heat Pipes: Theory, Design and Applications, 5th Ed. Burlington: Buttenworth-Heinemann, 2006. [3] Heat Pipe Technology, Thermacore, [online] 2013, http://www.thermacore.com/thermalbasics/heat-pipe-technology.aspx (Accessed: June 4, 2013) [4] Typical Operating Characteristics of Heat Pipes, Enteron, [online] 2006,

http://www.enertron-inc.com/enertron-products/heat-pipe-selection.php (Accessed: May 2013)

[5] Conductivity Heat Transfer, EngineeringToolBox, [online] 2013, http//www/engineeringtoolbox.com (Accessed: April 30, 2013)

[6] Heat Transfer Engineering, Engineers Edge, [online] 2013, http/www.engineeringedge.com Accessed: May 4, 2013)

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