Asymmetry and geometry effects on the dynamic behavior of a pulsating heat pipe

A mass-spring-damper model is developed to investigate the motion in a pulsating heat pipe (PHP). A heat transfer model is coupled to this mass-spring-damper model in order to study the effectivity of a PHP under different operating conditions. Four different configurations (one PHP with 12 turns; two parallel PHPs with 6 turns; 3 parallel PHPs with 4 turns; 6 parallel PHPs with 2 turns) are used to investigate the geometry effects. More oscillatory and translational motion and less stops are observed when increasing the number of turns of the PHP. A decrease in the number of motion stops leads to less fluctuations in the evaporator temperature and therefore less spread in thermal resistance of the system. In addition to that, the total thermal resistance of the system decreases with an increase in the number of turns of the PHP.