Abstract
A high-temperature sodium stainless steel heat pipe was fabricated and its performance has been investigated. The working fluid was sodium and it was sealed inside a straight tube container made of stainless steel. The amount of sodium occupied approximately 20% of the total volume of the heat pipe and its weight was 65.7gram. The length of a stainless steel container is 1002mm and its outside diameter is 25.4mm. Performance tests were carried out in a room air condition under a free convective environment and the measured temperatures are presented. The start-up behavior of the heat pipe from a frozen state was investigated for various heat input values between 600W and 1205W. In steady state, axial temperature distributions of a heat pipe were measured and its heat transfer rates were estimated in the range of vapor temperature from 500°C to 630°C. It is found that there are small temperature differences in the vapor core along the axial direction of a sodium heat pipe for the high operating temperatures. But for the range of low operating temperatures there are large temperature drops along the vapor core region of a sodium heat pipe, because a small vapor pressure drop makes a large temperature drop. The transition temperature was reached more rapidly in the cases of high heat input rate for the sodium heat pipe.
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Abbreviations
- A :
-
Heat transfer surface area[m2]
- C p :
-
Specific heat[J/kg · °C]
- D :
-
Diameter [m]
- g :
-
Gravitational acceleration [m/s2]
- h :
-
Heat transfer coefficient [W/m2 · °C]
- h fg :
-
Latent heat of vaporization [J/kg]
- K :
-
Permeability [m 2]
- K n :
-
Knudsen number (λ/D)
- k :
-
Thermal conductivity [W/m · °C]
- M :
-
Molecular weight [kg/kmol]
- P, p :
-
Pressure[N/m2]
- P r :
-
Reduced pressure(P/P c )
- Q,q :
-
Heat transfer rate[W]
- q″ :
-
Heat flux [W/m2]
- R :
-
Gas constant[j/kg · K]
- r :
-
Radius [m]
- s :
-
Injection/suction factor
- T :
-
Temperature [°C]
- T * :
-
Transition temperature [°C]
- Γ:
-
Specific heat ratio
- δ:
-
Liquid film thickness [m]
- λ:
-
Mean free path[m]
- μ:
-
Viscosity [N · s/m2]
- ν:
-
Dynamic viscosity [m2/s]
- ρ:
-
Density [kg/m3]
- σ:
-
Surface tension, condensing coefficient[N/m]
- ϕ:
-
Porosity of screen wick
- −:
-
Average, universal
- a :
-
Atmospheric
- b :
-
Boiling
- c :
-
Capillary, condenser, critical
- e :
-
Evaporator
- h :
-
Hydraulic
- i :
-
Inner
- nter :
-
Interphase between vapor and liquids
- l :
-
Liquid phase
- max:
-
Maximum
- n :
-
Critical nucleation
- S :
-
Surface/ sonic
- si :
-
Inside surface
- o :
-
Outer
- u :
-
Universal
- v :
-
Vapor phase, vapor section
- w :
-
Wick, wall
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Lee, B.I., Lee, S.H. Manufacturing and temperature measurements of a sodium heat pipe. KSME International Journal 15, 1533–1540 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03185743
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03185743