Volume-4, Issue-2, April-2014, ISSN No.

: 2250-0758
International Journal of Engineering and Management Research
Available at: www.ijemr.net
Page Number: 277-281

Performance Behaviour of Copper Pipe, Stainless Steel pipe and Steel

Heat Pipe
Shailesh Prajapati1, Prajesh Patel2
1
ME Thermal scholar Ldrp-itr,Gandhinagar, INDIA
2
Assistant Professor, Ldrp-itr , Gandhinagar, INDIA

ABSTRACT
In this paper study of heat pipe, copper pipe and
stainless steel pipe is done using apparatus. The power is
supplied to the all three pipes using suitable electric heater
and change of heat is possible with Dimmer stat suitable
heat is supplied and Temperatures were taken at certain
length from temperature sensor and indicator results shows
that the heat transfer is very good in case of the stainless
steel heat pipe compare to rest two pipes and also
computational analysis carried out in the ansys workbench
and cfx module and the result from the experiment is
validated from it.

Keywords: Heat Pipe, Heat flux, Temperature, Length.

I. INTRODUCTION
The Heat pipe is a device, which transfer heat by
boiling a fluid at one end and condensing it on the other
end of pipe. The evaporation and condensation processes
are responsible for the nearly isothermal working of the
heat pipe. The condensed liquid is transferred back to
boiling area by the capillary action for pumping the
liquid back is the unique characteristic of the heat pipe
Heat pipes are particularly useful in energy
conservation equipment where it is desired to recover
heat from hot gases for air preheats or supplemental
heating applications.in some cases the heat pipe can take
the place of more costly combinations of pumps, piping
and dual heat exchanger configurations.
The demonstrator consists of a heat pipe,
stainless steel tube and a copper pipe of identical Cal
properties such as diameters and lengths.
Heat pipe made up of stainless steel pipe. A
stainless steel pipe. A stainless steel wire mesh of
suitable mesh size is inserted in this pipe .circumferential
layers of this mesh have been used.
Calculated quantity of distilled water as
working fluid is introduced in the heat pipe after
cleaning the pipe and mesh with hydrochloric acid,
acetone and distilled water ,making perfect vacuum as
far as possible. The pipe is sealed after filling distilled
after. A stainless steel pipe and copper pipe are taken for
comparison
Figure 1 Working Principal of Heat Pipe
The lengths of the three pipes are kept equal .band
type heaters and used and mounted on the heating
sections. Temperature sensors measure the surface
temperatures along the lengths of pipe and temperature
of water in the condenser tank.
(i) Working Principal of heat Pipe
Heat pipes are devices that can transfer large
amount of heat with small temperature differences
between evaporator i.e. the heat source and condenser
i.e. heat sink. A heat pipe is a simple device that can
quickly transfer heat from one point to another. They
are often referred as a ”superconductors” of heat as they
possess an extra ordinary heat transfer capacity. The
length of the heat pipe is divided into three sections as
shown in Figure 1. Evaporator section - The region where
the external heat source is connected to the heat pipe.
Adiabatic (transport) section - The region where the heat
pipe is externally insulated and thus inhibits heat transfer
to or from the heat pipe, it is mainly a transport section for
the vapour and liquid. Condenser section - The region
where the external heat sink is connected.
Working fluid in the evaporaor evaporate as it get heat
from source and vapour pressure drives the vapour from
the evaporator to the condenser. And in the condenser its
reject heat and convert in to liquid due to the capillary
action of wick porosity the capillary pressure drives the
working fluid in to the evaporator back.

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 Other two pipes contain the same sturctures but it is
II. EXPERIMENTAL SET UP not closed secton as it not contain any working fluid or
loop
As shown in figure 1. Heat pipe demonstrator inside
used for experimentation of all three pipes which are
connected to electric supply and certain amount of power
is supplied to band heater. Three band heater connected
to pipes heating section of suitable pipe diameter. There
are 12 Temperature sensoers provided which can provide
temperature at the length of 100mm,180mm,in
condenser and 340 mm in the length of whole the pipe.

Figure 3 .Schematic Diagram of Pipes

Steel Heat Pipe specification

Diameter 32 mm

Length of Evaporator 75 mm

Length of adiabatic section 100 mm

Length of Condenser 135 mm

Figure 2. Experimental Apparatus

Now in all three pipes there are different

sections as shown in schematic diagram figure 2 Wick material steel
and also temperature sensors provided at 100
mm,180 mm in condenser and at the end 340 mm in the
pipe for measuring temperatures. Type of wick structure Screen wire mesh

Working fluid Distiled water

III. EXPERIMANTAL OBSEVATION

Following Tempeartures avalilable from the

supply of 0.5 Amp Power to the heater
V=Voltage= 115 volt
I=Current= 0.5 amp.
Q=Power = V*I=115*0.5 =57.5 watt
As we can see from the table 1. The
Temperature reading taken at every 20 min after starting
apparatus.with increase in time heat flux to the every
pipe increases. In the steel pipe intial Temperature T 1 is
higher as steel is having lower melting point temperature
Three sections of heat pipe contains :
it is becomes more heated compare to other two copper
(1) Evaporator
pipe and steel heat pipe. Table 2,3,4 and 5show the
(2) Adiabatic section
temperaures after 20,40,60 and 80 min .
(3) Condenser
at the length of the Pipes of 100mm length which is T1
,T2 at 180 mm length and T3 at 340 mm length
respectively.all the temperatures in degree celsius.

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 Table 1
Temperature at every min.
Steel heat pipe Copper pipe Steel pipe
Time
T 1 °c T 2 °c T 3 °c T 4 °c T 5 °c T 6 °c T 7 °c T 8 °c T 9 °c T 10 °c T 11 °c T 12 c
(min)
20 60.6 53.7 43.5 38 110 64.9 40.3 35.5 146.6 54.8 37.7 35.2
40 70.6 57.5 48.5 41 115 68.5 43.3 37.3 166.1 58.6 39.3 35.2
60 74 60.7 53 44.6 118.2 71.3 46.2 40.1 174.2 62 40.5 36.1
80 75.3 62.7 55.5 47.4 120 73.1 48 42.3 176.5 64 40.8 37

Table 2 Table 3
Temperature After 20 min Temperature After 40 min
Temp. Temp. Temp. Temp. Temp. Temp.
Length Length
Heat Copper Steel Heat Copper Steel
(mm) (mm)
pipe °c pipe °c pipe °c pipe °c pipe °c pipe °c

100 60.6 110 146.6 100 70.6 115 166.1

180 53.7 64.9 54.8 180 57.5 68.5 58.6
340 43.5 40.3 37.7 340 48.5 43.3 39.3
at evaporator section is about 85°c(358 k) and
condenser section 38°c (311k)

Table 4 Table 5
Temperature After 60 min Temperature After 80 min
Temp. Temp. Temp. Temp. Temp. Temp.
Length Length
Heat Copper Steel Heat Copper Steel pipe
(mm) (mm)
pipe °c pipe °c pipe °c pipe °c pipe °c °c

100 74 118.2 174.2 100 75.3 120 176.5

180 60.7 71.3 62 180 62.7 73.1 64

53 46.2 40.5 55.5 48 40.8

340 340

IV. COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS

IN ANSYS-CFX
Heat pipe model is prepared in solid works
and imported for simulation in software ansys and
analysis is carried out for similar condition as
experimental
(1) Evaporator section boundary condition is
heat flux in w/m2 .
(2) Adiabatic section boundary condition is
adiabatic region-no heat transfer from
outside.
(3) for condenser section boundary condition
is water temperature 30°c
Analysis of steel heat pipe is carried out using
Figure 4 Meshing of Heat Pipe
computational fluid dynamics module which is
shown in figure 5 and figure 6.Temperature contour
Shows maximum and minimum temperature
available after putting suitable amount of heat flux

279
Figure 5 Steel Heat Pipe Water Temperature Profile

Figure 6 Water Temperature Contour at 100 mm

Length

Figure 6 shows the water Temperature

contoure at 100 mm length temperature is hold
around 65°c (338 k)
From above it is clear that exit temperature
in steel heat pipe is higher as compared two both
V. RESULT AND DISCUSSION copper and steel pipes.

From the above work experimental and

Analytical there are different charts are plotted in
Time vs. temperature and length vs. temperature.
Graph 1 shows the Temperature with time
at 100 mm length of pipe.in which steel pipe having
maximum temperature at every stage of heating of
pipe. Copper pipe is at some lesser temperature and
steel heat pipe is at minimum temperature at this
point.
Graph 2 shows the Temperatures at length
of 340 mm of pipe in which steel heat pipe is at
maximum temperature 55.5°c, copper pipe is at
48°c and steel pipe 40.8 °c

280
 Graph 3 shows comparison of analytical and
experimental results which clearly indicate small
difference in the both the results.so result obtained
from experimental is validated from above.

VI. CONCLUSION
From above experimental work we can
conclude that heat pipes can transfer more amount
of heat as compared to normal pipe of same length
and diameter of other material copper and steel.
Heat pipe is very efficient heat transfer device.

REFERENCES

[1] Peterson G.P. An Introduction to Heat pipes

Modeling, Testing and Applications. A Wiley-
Interscience Publication, 1994.
[2] David Reay and Peter Kew. Heat Pipes Theory,
Design and Applications. Butterworth-Heinemann
Publications.
[3] Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of Two-
Phase Thermo syphon byNikhil E. Chaudhari Nishtha
Vijra , T. P. Singh
[4] Experimental investigation and computational fluid
dynamics analysis of a air cooled condenser heat pipe by
arul selvan annamalai and Velraj Ramlingam
[5] CFD Study of the Heat Pipes with Water-
Nanoparticles Mixture By Gabriela Huminic, Angel
Huminic
[6] Heat Pipe demonstrator laboratory manual Ldrp-
itr,Gandhinagar.

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