Estimation of Heat Transport Capability of

Axially Grooved Heat Pipe

Anand.A.R, Jasvanth.V.S, Srinivas.M, Simhachala Rao.Ch.,
Dinesh Kumar, Gupta.P.P & Bhandari.D.R
Thermal Systems Group, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore-560017, INDIA.

ABSTRACT
Heat pipe is an essential thermal element for temperature control of high power
communication satellites. In order to meet the temperature control requirements of ISRO built
satellites, dual channel axially grooved aluminum ammonia heat pipes have been indigenously
developed and qualified at Thermal Systems Group of ISRO Satellite Centre. One of the
important design parameters of heat pipe is the heat transport capability which plays an
important role in handling the satellite heat loads as well as in the design of heat pipe networks
for the satellites. An analytical model has been developed to estimate the heat transport
capability of a nominally charged heat pipe at different operating temperatures and gravity
effects. The estimated heat transport capabilities are also compared with the ground test
results.

NOMENCLATURE Subscripts

f skin friction factor, dimensionless a adiabatic section

g acceleration due to gravity, m/s2 c condenser section
h height, m cap capillary
hlv latent heat of vaporization, J/kg D Darcian
k permeability of wick structure, m2 e evaporator section
L length, m eff effective
m& mass flow rate, kg/s g gravity
N total number of grooves, dimensionless h hydraulic
p pressure, Pa l liquid
Q heat transport, W v vapor
r radius, m w Wick
Re Reynolds number, dimensionless
tb groove bottom width, m Key Words: Heat pipes, axial grooves, capillary
t groove depth, m action, heat transport.
u velocity, m/s
W width of the groove, m 1 INTRODUCTION
x axial distance from the start of evaporator, m
High power communication satellites employ a
Greek symbols large number of high power transponders for Direct
to Home services. As heat dissipation from these
groove aspect ratio, W/t, dimensionless transponders is large and highly concentrated, heat
adverse tilt angle, radians pipes, whose effective thermal conductance is several
wick porosity, dimensionless order higher than that of solid conductors like copper
surface tension, N/m and aluminium, are used to collect heat dissipated
dynamic viscosity, kg/(ms) from them and diffuse it through a large radiator area
density, kg/m3 with minimum temperature gradient, thereby
kinematic viscosity, m/s2 maintaining their temperature within permissible
correction factor for interfacial shear limits. Heat pipe network is generally embedded into
stress, dimensionless honeycomb structure to form thermal radiators of
satellite.

1
 Among various heat pipes with different wick
structures like wire mesh, arteries, axial grooves and
porous materials, axially grooved heat pipes using
ammonia as heat transport fluid are proven to be
reliable for long-life spacecraft mission. Considering
current and future satellite programs of ISRO and
need of self-reliance in heat pipe technology, the
state-of-the-art, dual channel axially grooved
aluminum-ammonia heat pipe has been indigenously
developed and qualified at Thermal Systems Group
of ISRO Satellite Centre.
A number of heat dissipating electronic packages
are generally mounted on a heat pipe. So, a heat pipe
has to collect the heat dissipated from all the
packages and transfer / distribute it through a heat
pipe network over the large radiator area. Therefore,
heat transport capability of a heat pipe plays an
important role in handling the satellite heat loads as
well as in the design of heat pipe networks for the
satellites. Heat transport capability of heat pipe is the
characteristic of capillary wick, working fluid and
operating conditions. Based on the literature studies,
an analytical model has been developed to estimate
the heat transport capability of a nominally charged
heat pipe at different operating temperatures and
gravity effects.
2 LITERATURE SURVEY
Numerous analyses have been reported in
literature by various authors for the estimation of heat
transport capability of axially grooved heat pipes.
Hopkins et al. [1] carried out analysis on flat
miniature heat pipes with rectangular axial grooves
assuming that the flow is laminar and incompressible,
neglecting the liquid-vapor interfacial shear stress
and presented a simple closed form solution.
However this model over-predicted the heat transport
of heat pipe.
Kim et al. [4] developed an analytical model for
heat and mass transfer in a miniature heat pipe with
axial grooves considering the effect of liquid-vapor
interfacial shear, contact angle and the fluid
inventory. The results showed that the liquid-vapor
interfacial shear significantly affects the heat
transport.
J.S. Suh et al. [2] investigated the flow of liquid
and vapor in trapezoidal and sinusoidal grooves and
obtained correlations for friction factors for the liquid
and vapor considering the effect of shear stress along
the interface of liquid and vapor. It was also shown
that the groove geometric configurations have
significant effect on the friction factor, which, in turn,
affects the heat transport of the heat pipe.
J.S.Suh and Y.S.Park [3] carried out numerical
analysis on thermal performance of flat micro heat
2
pipe with trapezoidal axial grooves considering the
effect of interfacial shear stress. Inference of the
analysis is that the heat transport by axial grooves
decreases significantly with interfacial shear effect.
In the present work, a simple analytical model
based on heat and mass transfer has been developed
for the prediction of heat transport capability of
axially grooved heat pipe. As liquid-vapor interfacial
shear stress significantly affects the heat transport
capability of the heat pipe, it is accounted in the
developed model. The paper presents the step-by-step
prediction of heat transport capability and
comparison of the predicted results with experimental
results.
3 ANALYTICAL MODEL FOR
PREDICTION OF HEAT TRANSPORT
CAPABILITY
Heat pipe contains a working-fluid / heat-
transport fluid and a wick structure enclosed in an
evacuated hermetically sealed envelope. The fluid
absorbs heat energy and becomes vapor due to latent
heat of vaporization. The vapor carries this heat
energy and rejects by condensation on the radiator
and the condensate liquid returns back due to
capillary action of the wick in order to maintain
continuous transfer of heat energy. Therefore, heat
transport capability of a heat pipe is limited mainly
due to capillary pressure generated in the wick i.e.,
the axial grooves in axially grooved heat pipe. For
the heat pipe to function satisfactorily, the capillary
pressure developed by the grooves should be capable
of providing enough mass flow rate of the working
fluid to carry the heat from the evaporator to
condenser, while overcoming maximum pressure
drop in the liquid and vapor flow paths. Hence, the
capillary pressure should overcome all the pressure
losses occurring in the liquid and vapor flow paths
including any pressure drop due to adverse gravity
condition.
W
t
tb
Figure 1. Schematic of the groove geometry in the
heat pipe.
 In order to develop the analytical model, the dp v v f v Re h, v m & v ......... (8)
following assumptions were made: = 2
dx 2 v A v r h, v
The flow is one-dimensional and incompressible
for both liquid and vapor phases The mass flow rate of liquid and vapor for a given
The heat pipe is nearly isothermal heat load can be written as
Thermo-physical properties are constant
throughout the heat pipe length Q ......... (9)
&l =m
m &v =
The heat pipe is considered to be nominally h lv
charged with the working fluid for a given The liquid pressure drop due to adverse gravity tilt
operating temperature (evaporator end above condenser end) can be written
as
Considering the above, the capillary pumping
condition can be mathematically expressed as p g = l gLsin .......................................... (10)

dp v dp
pcap = dx + l dx +pg ........... (1) The equation (10) can also be written as
L dx L dx

The available capillary pressure can be written from p g = l gh tilt

............................................... (11)
Laplace-Young equation as
Substituting the liquid and vapor pressure gradients
... (2) and liquid pressure drop due to adverse gravity tilt in
p cap =
rcap, e rcap, c equation (1) and rearranging, we can get,

As rcap ,c >> rcap ,e the above equation can be written as

2
l gh tilt
W .(12)
2 ....... (3) QL =
pcap
rcap,e
=
W f v Re h, v v + l

2r 2 A h KA h
The liquid pressure gradient in the grooves without h, v v v lv w l lv

considering the interfacial shear stress can be written

by Darcys equation for porous medium as The above equation, after inclusion of a correction
factor,, for interfacial shear stress, can be written as
dp l l u D ......... (4) [6]
=
dx K

Introducing porosity, = u D , and the mass flow rate 2
l gh tilt
uw W ...(13)
QL =
of liquid, m & l = l A w u w , the above equation can be f v Re h, v v + l
written as 2r 2 A h KA h
(1 + )
h, v v v lv w l lv
dp l l u D lm& l ....... (5)
= = where, is a constant, which is a geometry factor
dx K l A w NK
given by
where K, the permeability of the groove, can be
3
written as [5] N A l rh , v 1 ...... (14)
=
3 W 2 W
2 rh,2 l ................ (6)
K=
2f l Re h, l Equation (13) can be used for the estimation of
heat transport capabilities as a function of adverse tilt
Substituting this expression in equation (4), we get, of the heat pipe.

dp l l f l Re h, l m
& l .... (7) The entire calculation is summarized in the form
=
dx 2 l A w Nr h,2 l of flow chart / programme as given below:

Similarly, the vapor pressure gradient can be written

as

3
 Start 4 EXPERIMENTAL DETERMINATION
OF HEAT TRANSPORT CAPABILITY
Enter the operating
A heat pipe of length 1860 mm was selected for
temperature
the determination of heat transport capability. The
heat pipe was divided into three zones, namely, heat
Enter fluid properties input / evaporator zone (200 mm long), heat removal
for the required / condenser zone (280 mm long) and heat transport /
temperature adiabatic zone (1320 mm long). The heat pipe was
instrumented with an electrical heater of capacity 400
W at evaporator end and T-type thermocouples (30
Enter heat pipe AWG) at various locations on both the channels for
geometry details axial temperature measurements. The evaporator and
adiabatic zones of the heat pipe were insulated with
Enter heat pipe ceramic wool and foam. The condenser end of the
adverse gravity tilt heat pipe was mounted with a heat sink connected to
a cryostat.
Calculate heat transport Near zero gravity condition can be simulated in
capability as per equation (13) the laboratory by keeping heat pipe horizontal.
Therefore, instrumented heat pipe was kept on a
leveled surface plate through suitable support fixture,
Stop which has a provision for adverse gravity tilt
adjustments. The schematic of the test set up is
shown in figure 4.
Using this programme, the heat transport
capability of the dual channel heat pipe of cross-
section as given below was calculated for different Printer
temperatures. Instrumented heat pipe Insulation
Heat sink
Channel-1 Channel-2 Coolant in
10.0C Data logger
Coolant
out
Cryostat Surface plate DC power supply
9

Voltage Current
12.7
7.

28 No. of
25 trapezoidal grooves
[0.5 X 0.8 X 1.3] Figure 4. Schematic of the test set up.
[Dimensions are in 'mm']

Heat input was given to the heat pipe through the

Figure 2. Schematic of the heat pipe cross section. heater and increased in steps till dry-out which
represents maximum heat load a heat pipe can
The estimated heat transport capabilities of the transfer, while maintaining the required operating
developed heat pipe are shown in the plot below: temperature, defined as the average adiabatic
temperature of the heat pipe, by adjusting the set
temperature of cryostat. Dry out in a heat pipe is
400
easily observed by a sudden rise in the evaporator
Heat transport capability, Wm

350 temperature with an additional heat load. The same

300 procedure was followed for determination of
250
maximum heat transport of the heat pipe at 2.5 mm
and 5 mm adverse tilts also.
200 0 mm tilt
2.5 mm tilt
150
5.0 mm tilt 5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
100
-40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
o
Temperature, C The heat transport capability of the heat pipes is
the product of the maximum heat load to the heat
pipe prior to dry out and the effective heat transport
Figure 3. Estimated heat transport capabilities
length. The effective heat transport length is
for different temperatures and tilts.
calculated as

4
 Le L encouragement and support in the development
L eff = + L a + c ...(15) activities. The authors also wish to the team members
2 2
of this project, Mr.M.Anandan and Mr.G.Devaraju
The measured heat transport capability for for their involvement in instrumentation and testing
horizontal tilt and adverse tilts of 2.5 mm and 5 mm activities.
at two different operating temperatures, 20C and
60C are tabulated below [7], [8] & [9]: 7 REFERENCES
Table 1. Experimental heat transport capabilities. Periodicals

Heat transport capability, Wm [1] R. Hopkins, A. Fagri, and D. Khrustalev, Flat

Temperature,
0 mm 2.5 mm 5 mm Miniature Heat Pipes with Micro Capillary Grooves,
C Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol.121, pp. 102 109, 1999.
tilt tilt tilt
20 382.7 341.9 224.8 [2] Jeong Se Suh, Ralph Grief and Costas P.
Grigoropoulos, Friction in micro-channel flows of a liquid
60 277.0 224.8 154.2 and vapor in trapezoidal and sinusoidal grooves,
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 44, pp.
Plot below shows the comparison between the 3103 3109, 2001.
calculated and experimentally obtained heat transport [3] Jeong Se Suh and Young Sik Park, Analysis of
capabilities for 20C and 60C. Thermal Performance in a Micro Flat Heat Pipe with
Axially Trapezoidal Groove, Tamkang Journal of Science
and Engineering, Vol.6, No.4, pp. 201 206, 2003.
500 [4] Sung Jin Kim, Joung Ki Seo, Kyu Hyung Do,
Analytical and experimental investigation on the
Heat transport capability, Wm

450 Calculated
400
o
[20 C] operational characteristics and the thermal optimization of
350 Experimental a miniature heat pipe with a grooved wick structure,
300
o
[20 C] International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, pp. 2051
250 Calculated
o
2063, 2003.
[60 C]
200
150 Experimental
o
[60 C]
Books
100
0 1 2 3 4 5
Adverse tilt, mm [5] A. Fagri, Heat Pipe Science and Technology,
Taylor and Francis, Washington, pp. 124-125, 1995.
Figure 5. Comparison of theoretical and
Proceedings
experimental heat transport capabilities.
[6] P.Brennan, Kroliczeg.E, Jen.H, and McIntosh,,
The plot above shows that there is good Axially Grooved Heat Pipes, AIAA Paper 77-747, 12th
agreement between predicted and experimental heat Thermo-physics Conference N. Mex., June 27-29, 1977.
transport capabilities for all the tilts and two
temperatures. Reports, Theses, and Individual Papers

6 CONCLUSIONS [7] Space Products Division, Elbeam Devices

Limited, Bangalore, End Item Data Package of Flight
Model Dual Core Heat Pipes for INSAT-4A Battery
An analytical model was developed for Panel, SPD-EDL/EIDP/02-2004, June-2004.
estimation of heat transport capability of axially [8] Space Products Division, Elbeam Devices
grooved aluminium-ammonia heat pipes at different Limited, Bangalore, End Item Data Package of Flight
operating temperatures and different adverse tilts, Model Dual Core Heat Pipes for INSAT-4C North Panel,
taking into account the effect of liquid-vapor SPD-EDL/EIDP/03-2005, March-2005.
interfacial shear also. The estimated heat transport [9] Space Products Division, Elbeam Devices
capabilities were compared with experimental results Limited, Bangalore, End Item Data Package of Flight
Model Dual Core Heat Pipes for INSAT-4C South Panel,
and found to be in reasonably good agreement.
SPD-EDL/EIDP/04-2005, May-2005.

7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank our Director,
Dr.K.N.Shankara, and Deputy Director of
Mechanical Systems Area, Dr.P.S.Nair, for