Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 22 (2020) 100767

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Case Studies in Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/csite

Computational evaluation of thermal behavior of a wickless heat

pipe under various conditions
Ayad M. Al Jubori a, *, Qusay A. Jawad b
a
Communication Engineering Department, University of Technology – Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq
b
Electrical Engineering Department, University of Technology – Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Different techniques were stated in the published literature for predicting the thermal perfor­
Wickless heat pipe mance of wickless heat pipe (WHP) but detailed modeling results such as flow visualization, and
CFD simulation heat transfer features through the geyser boiling occurrences inside the WHP are limited. Hence,
Inclinations angles
it would be valuable to possess a CFD simulation modeling for the WHP. A two-dimensional CFD
Filling ratio
Two-phase flow
model of the WHP in ANSYS-Fluent was developed with an in-house code (user-defined functions)
to enhance the simulation of the WHP operation which cannot be visualized by experimental
studies. Temperature profiles and thermal resistance along the WHP have been investigated under
various operating conditions in terms of filling ratios, inclination angles, and heat added. The
predicted CFD results are validated against the available experiments with a good agreement.
Thermal resistance along the WHP was reduced by rising the heat added. The results showed that
the impact of the filling ratios on the average temperature of the evaporator wall at relatively
high heat added is more clear compare with low heat added. The results highlighted that the
developed CFD model of the WHP can visualize various forms of the droplet, boiling and
condensation regimes, and heat transfer at different operating conditions.

1. Introduction

A heat pipe comprises two main components: a vacuum-closed vessel (i.e., the device working length), and a working fluid. It can
be utilized in more industrial applications to prevent pre-existing temperature gradients like furnaces and ovens, and to control the
system temperature as electronic devices. Some applications need a variable heat flux, thus heat pipes can play this role as solar
desalination systems and circuit breakers. The heat pipe can be considered as a technology, self-contained heat transfer tool capable of
transfer substantial amounts of heat from a high-temperature section into a low-temperature section. Where high rates of heat transfer
are attendant with evaporation and condensation phenomena throughout the device. The thermal energy in terms of heat is transferred
depending on the phase-change of the working fluid at small temperature difference with a large amount of heat transfer which is
associated with a small thermal resistance over the working length of the heat pipe. Many previous contributions have been reported in
[1–4] about the laminar and turbulent flows with convection heat transfer in a circular tube.
Many experimental and numerical investigations have been done on the heat pipe. In terms of numerical studies, Brahim and Jemni
[5] developed a two-dimensional model to investigate the heat pipe performance with nano-fluids. Li and Zhang [6] proposed a
dynamic heat transfer model of the heat pipe to investigate its performance in the summer months. Wang et al. [7] coupled a CFD with

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ayad.m.salman@uotechnology.edu.iq (A.M. Al Jubori).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csite.2020.100767
Received 21 August 2020; Received in revised form 21 September 2020; Accepted 10 October 2020
Available online 16 October 2020
2214-157X/© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
A.M. Al Jubori and Q.A. Jawad Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 22 (2020) 100767

Nomenclature

CFD computational fluid dynamics

Cp specific heat (J/kg K)
CSF continuum surface force
Dsm mean Sauter diameter (m)
E energy (J)
→
F external force (N)
FCS surface tension force (N)
FR filling ratio
g gravity (m/s2)
Δh latent heat (kJ/kg)
k thermal conductivity (W/K m)
L length (m)
M molecular weight (kg/kmol)
P pressure (Pa)
R universal gas constant (J/mol K)
SE energy source term (kg/m s3)
SM momentum source term (kg/m2 s2)
T Temperature (K)
t time (s)
u velocity (m/s)
UDF user-defined function
VOF volume of fluid
WHP wickless heat pipe

Greek symbols
α void fraction
β relaxation parameter
μ dynamic viscosity (N.s/m2)
ρ Density (kg/m3)
σ surface tension (N/m)

Subscript
c condenser
e evaporator
i, j, n phase i, j, n
l Liquid
sat saturation
v vapor

visualization to predict the geyser boiling features through closed thermosiphon with two-phase flow. Akkus et al. [8] presented a
simulation of nano-scale heat pipe consisting of a nano groove with molecular dynamics. Shafieian and Khiadani [9] presented a
methodology to evaluate the heat pipe performance in different households driven by solar water heating systems.
Several experimental investigations have been stated on the HP performance. Samana et al. [10] experimentally examined the
finned oscillating heat pipe efficiency charged with R123. They indicated that the fins’ efficiency of the oscillating heat pipe was higher
than the conventional finned heat exchanger. Abdulshaheed et al. [11] experimented the heat pipe performance based on the
nanowires in terms of copper oxide (CuO) which was fixed on the inner wall of the evaporator part. They found that the thermal
resistance with CuO nanowires was decreased by 81.2%. Almahmoud and Jouhara [12] constructed and tested the flat heat pipe
performance for the radiative heat exchange in different configurations with and without a back panel. Wang et al. [13] experimentally
tested the micro flat plate HP performance with various liquid filling ratios and working fluids. Their experimental results revealed that
the methanol has a high thermal conductivity of 8539 W/m.K with a minimum thermal resistance of 0.18 K/W.
The thermal performance of the heat pipe was experimentally investigated with nano-fluids, as reported in [14–17]. It was indi­
cated that the thermal performance was strongly affected by chemical stabilizers and nanoparticles. Moreover, the phase-change
material can be used with heat pipes to manage heat transfer through a thermal system in different engineering applications
[18–21]. Smith et al. [22] experimented the heat pipe thermal performance that was used in a high power battery as a thermal
management device for a heat load of 400 W. Liang et al. [23] offered an experimental exploration of the thermal performance of the
mini rotating heat pipe at heat loads ranging between 2.5 W and 30 W at rotational speeds of 1000 rpm and 3000 rpm, respectively. Liu
et al. [24] accomplished an optimization and test of the wall implanted heat pipe. They found that the enhancement in the equivalent

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A.M. Al Jubori and Q.A. Jawad Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 22 (2020) 100767

heat transfer coefficient by 12.7% was achieved. Tecchio et al. [25] experimentally studied the geyser boiling phenomenon with
phase-change through thermosiphon. The system consisted of dual-condenser which was shared with a single evaporator. Nakkaew
et al. [26] tested the heat pipe performance with a split-type air conditioning unit. Their experimental results indicated that the
proposed system provided a higher pressure drop from the air-side due to the high velocity. Putra et al. [27] constructed a heat pipe
with a passive cooling system and phase-change material, and the performance has been investigated for temperature range from 22 to
55 ◦ C. Siricharoenpanich et al. [28] experimentally investigated the effect of inclination angles with a fixed filling ratio of 50% of the
heat pipe on the varying temperature of the computer processing unit.
From the evaluation of different preceding studies, limited studies have stated the occurrence of the flow visualization, temperature
characteristics, and geyser boiling in the WHP. Moreover, the WHP for a compound parabolic and thermal solar collector application is
developed in this study, and the related studies are limited. Consequently, the present study aims to search numerically the impact of
the filling ratios, inclination angles, and heat added on the thermal performance of the WHP which in turn leads to more understanding
of the pool boiling and condensation processes through the WHP working. Therefore, numerical simulation modelling is developed to
visualize the geyser boiling and condensation phenomena and thermal performance (i.e., the heat transfer thermal resistances)
through the operation of the WHP with water. A simulation methodology is developed by adding a user-defined function (an in-house
code) which is combined with ANSYS-Fluent to simulate the two-phase flow and heat transfer processes through the operation of the
WHP in a transient and steady-state.

2. The WHP geometry

A two-dimensional geometry and dimensions of the WHP, as displayed in Fig. 1, was used to simulate and analyze the flow behavior
and heat transfer features through the phase change of the working fluid. The water is chosen as a working fluid.

3. Mathematical methodology

3.1. Governing equations of flow and heat transfer

For two or multi non-mixable working fluids, the volume of fluid (VOF) technique is developed. Where the interface place between
the working fluids/multiphase is of attention, such as the transient and steady-state of any gas/liquid interface. The formulation of the
governing equations in terms of the VOF model can be described as follows:

(i) Continuity equation

The continuity equation for the vapor phase is defined as follows [29]:
( )
∂
(αv ρv ) + ∇. αv ρv →
u v = SM (1)
∂t

where αv is the vapor volume fraction, ρv represents the vapor density, →

u v is the vapor velocity vector, and SM represents the mass

Fig. 1. Two-phase wickless heat pipe geometry and dimensions.

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A.M. Al Jubori and Q.A. Jawad Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 22 (2020) 100767

transfer from vapor/liquid to liquid/vapor through condensation or evaporation progression.

Moreover, the liquid phase volume fraction is obtained as the following [29]:
∑
n
αl = 1 (2)
l=1

(ii) Momentum equations (Navier-Stokes equations)

In the volume of fluid method, the momentum equations depend on the volume-average of the density and dynamic viscosity in
terms of the phases volume fraction as the following [30]:
∂ → →
(ρ u ) + ∇.(ρ→
u→u ) = − ∇P + ρ→
g + ∇.[μ(∇→
u + ∇→ (3)
T
u )] + F
∂t

ρ = αl ρl + αv ρv (4)

μ = αl μl + αv μv (5)

where F represents the external force applying on the working fluid, g represents the gravity acceleration, and P represents the
pressure.
The continuum surface force (CSF) method is utilized with momentum equations according to Blackbill [31] to comprise the
surface tension effects of the interface between the vapor and liquid as follows:
( )
∑ σij αi ρi Ci ∇αi + αj ρj Cj ∇αj
FCS = ( ) (6)
pairsij, i<j ρi + ρj 2/

where C represents the surface curvature between the working fluid phases and σij characterizes the coefficient of the surface tension.

(iii) Energy equation

Energy equation in the volume of fluid (VOF) form is presented as the following [30]:
∂( ) [ ( )]
ρCp T + ∇. →
u ρCp T + P = ∇.(k∇T) + SE (7)
∂t

where SE characterizes the energy equation source term. k is thermal conductivity which is obtained as follows [29]:
k = αl kl + αv kv (8)
The mass-averaged variables i.e., the energy term (E) is given by the following equation [29]:
α l ρ l El + α v ρ v Ev
E= (9)
αl ρl + αv ρv

where El and Ev are the liquid thermal energy and the vapor thermal energy, respectively.

3.2. Heat and mass transfer through the WHP

To consider the evaporation and condensation process through the WHP accurately, the user-defined function (UDF) is established
for the heat and mass transfer between working fluid phases i.e., liquid and vapor phases. The mass transfer source terms for the
evaporation process (SM,lv) and condensation process (SM,vl) is obtained based on the following equations [32]:
Tsat − T
SM,lv = βe αl ρl (10)
Tsat

SM,vl = βc αv ρv (11)

where T represents the mixture-phase temperature of the working fluid (i.e., liquid and vapor), and Tsat represents the saturation
temperature. βc and βe are the relaxation parameters of mass transfer for condensation and evaporation processes, respectively. They
require to be adjusted to contest the data from experiments which can be calculated from the following equations [32]:
√̅̅̅̅̅
6 ρv Δh M
βe = √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ (12)
Dsm (ρl − ρv ) 2π RTsat

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A.M. Al Jubori and Q.A. Jawad Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 22 (2020) 100767

√̅̅̅̅̅
6 ρl Δh M
βc = √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ (13)
Dsm (ρl − ρv ) 2π RTsat

where M represents the molecular weight, DSM represents mean Sauter diameter, Δh represents the latent heat and R represents the
universal gas constant.

4. CFD simulation

4.1. Model geometry and meshing

The design modular (DM) in ANSYS workbench is used to generate the two-dimension WHP geometry in a vertical direction. The
geometry and dimensions of the WHP are presented in Fig. 1 and Table 1. Moreover, the design modular is utilized to generate the grid
of the WHP geometry using a control-edge-sizing mode. This technique allows controlling the mesh in all computational areas,
adjusting the size of the cells inside a solid domain (walls), and near the internal walls of the WHP to seizure the flow and heat transfer
in these zones. To achieve mesh-independence, various mesh sizes were tested, as shown in Fig. 2a. Where the final grid number of the
fluid domain was 50,000 nodes compared with 10,000 nodes in the solid domain. Fig. 2b shows the grid type and size.

4.2. CFD setup and solution procedure

ANSYS-Fluent offers various separated algorithms for pressure and velocity combinations. In the CFD model, a combination of the
SIMPLE algorithm for velocity-pressure coupling and the first-order upwind scheme is applied to avoid convergence difficulties and
reduce the computation time through solving the momentum and energy equations. Furthermore, the PRESTO discretization with Geo-
Reconstruct is used in CFD simulations.
In ANSYS-Fluent, the VOF model can be used to demonstrate the interfaces movement and phase-change flow through the WHP. To
simulate the dynamic performance of the WHP during the two-phase flow, a transient model was conducted with a step of time of
0.001s. Where the flow inside the WHP was assumed as a laminar incompressible transient flow. In this study, the numerical solution is
taken into account to be converged when the residual of the mass and velocity components were 10− 5 compared to 10− 6 for the
temperature.
A vapor phase is specified as the main phase compared with a second phase for a liquid phase. In the UDF code, the working fluid
latent heat of the evaporation and condensation processes and boiling temperatures were defined in the code to calculate the mass and
heat transfer through the work of the WHP. Where the saturation/boiling temperature of the working fluid of 373 K was specified to
confirm that the boiling/evaporating process starts once the solution time runs to reduce the convergence/solution time [29]. At the
condenser section, the working fluid and the wall temperatures (condenser cooling temperature) are set at 293 K [29]. Moreover,
various working fluid filling ratios of the evaporator section namely 25%, 50%, and 90% with inclination angles of 10◦ , 30◦ , 45◦ , 70◦ ,
and 90◦ are considered. The inclination angles of the WHP are specified from the horizontal axis.
The initial temperature of the liquid pool and its volume fraction was fixed based on the different rates. When no heating, the initial
condition is set. Moreover, at the inner wall of the WHP, the boundary condition was fixed as no-slip. To simulate the heat added add,
constant heat flux is fixed along with the evaporator outside wall. A zero heat input/heat rejected (i.e. insulated condition) was defined
at the bottom and top ends of the WHP, assuming there is no heating or cooling at these ends. In this study, surface tension between the
liquid and vapor phases in terms of the interfacial force was included by activating the CSF in the ANSYS-Fluent. Where the Fs term was
added into the momentum equation (i.e. equation (3)). The applied CSF model was based on the proposed model by Brackbill et al.
[31]. The value of the surface tension force was obtained using the below correlation [33]:

σ = 0.09805856 − 1.845 × 10− 5 T − 2.3 × 10− 7 T 2 (14)

In CFD simulations, the mass flow inlet was chosen as a boundary condition assuming, no vapor for the working fluid in the inlet
section. A flowchart of the computation analysis procedure is presented in Fig. 3. For both the pipe and the working fluid, the ther­
mophysical properties defined in the developed CFD model are listed in Table 2. Water density is calculated using a polynomial profile
according to the following equation [33]:

ρl = 859.0083 + 1.252209T − 0.0026429T 2 (15)

Table 1
Heat pipe specifications and dimensions.
WHP Inner WHP diameter Outer WHP diameter Pipe thickness Length of evaporator Length of condenser Working
material (mm) (mm) (mm) section (mm) section (mm) fluids

Copper 22 23.8 0.9 200 200 Water

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A.M. Al Jubori and Q.A. Jawad Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 22 (2020) 100767

Fig. 2. Mesh-independence (a), grid shape and size of the computational grid (b).

5. Results and discussion

5.1. WHP model validation

The developed CFD model of the WHP was validated against the available experimental data reported in [34,35]. A similar
configuration, as presented in Table 3 were used. The obtained results of the WHP from the CFD simulations using the VOF approach in
terms of the thermal resistance and the wall temperature of the WHP at various operating conditions were validated with those from
experimental works for Jouhara and Robinson [34] and Jafari et al. [35], as shown in Fig. 4a and Fig. 4b, respectively. The com­
parisons showed a good agreement between the predicted CFD results and experimental data with a maximum deviation of 9.86% in
terms of wall temperature compared with 8.63% for thermal resistance. This deviation between the results is due to higher evaporator
temperatures obtained from the CFD simulations compared with lower condenser temperatures, which in turn lead to higher thermal
resistance. Moreover, the heat losses through the experimental tests and the measurements uncertaines may lead to the deviation
between the predicted CFD results and experimental data where the heat losses are not considered in the simulations. The comparison
showed that the developed model of the WHP can evaluate the heat transfer characteristics and two-phase flow behavior.

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A.M. Al Jubori and Q.A. Jawad Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 22 (2020) 100767

Fig. 3. Flowchart of the computational analysis procedure.

Table 2
The basic physical properties of the used materials.
Materials and their Properties ρ (kg/m3) Cp kJ/kg.K k (W/m.K) μ (N.s/m2) M (kg/kmol)

Water-liquid Equation (15) 4.182 0.6 0.001003 18.01534

5
Water-vapor 0.5542 2.014 0.0261 1.34 × 10− 18.01534
Pipe Material Density (kg/m3) Thermal conductivity (W/m.K)
Copper 8978 387.6

Table 3
Geromtry charactersitics of the model used in the experimaetal validation.
Authors Inner diameter Outer diameter Total length Evaporator length Condenser length Working
(mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) fluid

Jouhara and Robinson 6 12 200 40 60 Water

[34]
Jafari et al. [35] 33 35 500 75 150 water

5.2. Flow visualization and heat transfer characteristics

In this section, the visualization of the pool boiling (i.e., evaporation) and condensation phenomena through the evaporator and
condenser, respectively, are presented. Fig. 5 displays the volume fraction contour of water pool boiling and condensation process with
the FRs of 25%, 50%, and 90%, respectively, for heat added of 110 W at vertical orientation and different computational time. Red
color represents a vapor volume fraction of 1 (i.e., the presence of only vapor), but a blue color refers to a vapor volume fraction of zero

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A.M. Al Jubori and Q.A. Jawad Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 22 (2020) 100767

Fig. 4. Comparison between the current CFD result and experimental data reported by Jouhara and Robinson [34] (a), and Jafari et al. [35] (b).

Fig. 5. Vapor volume fraction contours at filling ratio of 50% and various computional time at heat added of 110W, inclination angle of (a) 15◦ , (b)
45◦ and (c) 90◦ , respectively.

(i.e., the presence of only liquid).

The mixed red and blue colors indicate that the evaporation and condensation processes have been started. The evaporator section
wall was heated using a constant heat flux. The head added is a transfer by conduction mode through the evaporator wall and then into

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A.M. Al Jubori and Q.A. Jawad Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 22 (2020) 100767

the saturation liquid to boil it. Once the liquid starts to boil, the liquid temperature goes above saturation temperature, and phase
change occurs. As displayed, in Fig. 5a,b, and c at different computational times, nucleation sites occur, and vapor bubbles begin to
form at those places. After the evaporation process, the converse process occurs in the condenser section, as displayed, in Fig. 5a,b, and
c. Where the condensation phenomenon as a liquid film occurs along the internal surface of the condenser wall. The liquid film region
is concentrated on the lower zone of the condenser.
Fig. 6a,b, c shows the contours of the heat transfer development through the WHP operation at different times for filling ratio (FR)
of 50% and heat added of 110 W. Fig. 6 exhibited that the temperature distribution inside the evaporator and condenser sections have
been visualized at three different inclination angles (15◦ , 45◦ and, 90◦ ). Due to a constant heat flux reserved on the evaporator side, the
liquid temperature increased, and the boiling heat transfer continuous because of the variance between the working fluid temperature
and evaporator wall temperature.
In the evaporator section, the high-temperature region develops because of the vapor moving upward where the vapor flows into
the condenser side, as revealed in Fig. 6a,b,c. Next, the condenser temperature increased because of the water vapor reaching this part.
Along the condenser inner wall surface, the vapor begins to condense because a lower temperature is recorded. Then, the condensed
vapor as a liquid drops back into the evaporator section due to the gravity. The temperature distribution becomes uniform at the
steady-state (50 s).

5.3. Parametric study using validated CFD model

The distribution of the temperature profiles along the WHP is presented with various filling ratios (FRs) for three different heat
added of 50, 110, and 280 W, respectively, at an inclination angle of 90◦ , as shown in Fig. 7a–c. It is noticed from Fig. 7a–c that the
temperature profile was nearly uniform for each heat added. Moreover, there is a substantial fall in temperature at the boundary
between the evaporator and the condenser. It is because the working fluid flows into the condenser part. In contrast, the wall tem­
perature increased gradually as the heat added increased from 50 W to 280 W, showing that the WHP reached it’s a maximum
operating condition in terms of heat added.
In the evaporator section, the effect of the FR at each heat added is more clearly compared with the condenser section. Furthermore,
the lower temperature distribution is noticed at the FR of 50% compared with the FR of 25%. A high wall temperature appears
approximately in the middle of the length of the evaporator section at a filling ratio of 25% compared to other filling ratios’ values
where a high evaporator wall temperature of filling ratios of 50% and 90% is observed at the upper part for the three heat added. The
height of the liquid in the evaporator precludes bulky bubbles to arrive at the liquid surface making a vapor film on the internal wall
which leads to rising the wall temperature in this zone.
The change in the average temperature of the evaporator wall with filling ratios for three different heat added at an inclination
angle of 45◦ is displayed in Fig. 8. It is clear that the average temperature at a filling ratio of 25% with heat added of 280 W has a
maximum value compared with the FR of 50%, which has a minimum average evaporator wall temperature for all three different heat
added. Moreover, there is a little change in the average wall temperature of the evaporator section at the heat added of 50 W compared
with heat added of 110 W and 280 W. Consequently, it can be concluded that the impact of the filling ratios on the average temperature
of the evaporator wall at relatively high heat added is more clear compare with low heat added.
Fig. 9 exhibited that the predicted thermal resistance falls with increasing the heat added at different filling ratios. Moreover, it is
observed that the minimum thermal resistance values were achieved at higher heat added, specifically for filling ratio (FR) of 50%, and
the heat added above 280 W where the thermal resistance increases at lower FR for each same heat added. Also, the same trends were
observed for each FR. The FR of 50% indicated a better performance in terms of a minimum thermal resistance due to reducing the
temperature variance through the evaporator and condenser sections. Thus, the developed CFD model can illustrate the variant in the
WHP thermal performance for various heat added. Where the heat is absorbed mainly as a latent heat which leads to very high thermal
conductance properties at very small temperature-gradients alongside the heat pipe length.

Fig. 6. a Contours on temperature (K) distribution through the WHP at different computational time, and filling ratio of 50% with heat added of
110 W.

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A.M. Al Jubori and Q.A. Jawad Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 22 (2020) 100767

Fig. 7. Wall temperature distribution profiles along the WHP for different filling ratios and heat added at inclination angle of 45◦ .

Fig. 8. The change of average evaporator temperature with filling ratios for three different heat added at inclination angle of 45◦ .

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A.M. Al Jubori and Q.A. Jawad Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 22 (2020) 100767

Fig. 9. Evolution of thermal resistance with heat added for three various filling ratios at inclination angle of 90◦ .

6. Conclusions

In this study, an innovative CFD model was developed for a WHP to predict its thermal performance under various operating
conditions in terms of heat added, filling ratio, and inclination angle. The developed CFD model was used to consider the thermal
resistance, temperature profile along the WHP. The CFD simulations were conducted utilizing the ANSYS-Fluent to visualize the two-
phase flow features through the evaporation and condensation developments in the WHP from the start-up to the steady-state process.
To enhance the ability of ANSYS-Fluent to capture the phase change during the operation of the WHP, an in-house code as a user-
defined function (UDF) was developed. The comparison between the predicted CFD results and experimental results showed that a
good agreement has been achieved. The predicted results from the CFD simulations exhibited that the thermal resistance of the WHP
decreased from 0.29 to 0.15 W/◦ C at the FR of 25% with the rise in the heat added. Moreover, the maximum thermal resistance was
found at a FR of 25% with heat added of 50 W. Moreover, the evaporator wall temperature was attained when a small filling ratio was
used. Where the thermal resistance increased at low filling ratios because the vapor film was formed on the internal wall of the
evaporator. The highest thermal performance (i.e. low thermal resistance) was performed at an inclination angle of 90ᵒ and filling ratio
of 50% due to reducing the temperature variance through the evaporator and condenser sections. As a result, the complex two-phase
flow through the evaporation and condensation processes was effectively visualized for the inclined WHP with various filling ratios
through the developed CFD model. To simulate the WHP with micro-groove and internal wall roughness, develop a CFD model is
required to investigate their influence on the thermal performance as future work.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Ayad M. Al Jubori: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Validation, Visualization.
Qusay A. Jawad: Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Validation, Writing - review & editing.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge the University of Technology-Iraq for providing the facilities which led to achieve this work.

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csite.2020.100767.

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A.M. Al Jubori and Q.A. Jawad Case Studies in Thermal Engineering 22 (2020) 100767

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