Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 8999

www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Heat transfer characteristics of the evaporator section

using small helical coiled pipes in a looped heat pipe
Jie Yi *, Zhen-Hua Liu, Jing Wang
School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200030, China
Received 30 November 2001; received in revised form 5 June 2002; accepted 5 July 2002

Abstract
An experimental study was carried out for the heat transfer characteristics and the ow patterns of the
evaporator section using small diameter coiled pipes in a looped heat pipe (LHP). Two coiled pipes: the
glass pipe and the stainless steel pipes were used as evaporator section in the LHP, respectively. Flow and
heat transfer characteristics in the coiled tubes of the evaporator section were investigated under the dif-
ferent lling ratios and heat uxes. The experimental results show that the combined eect of the evapo-
ration of the thin liquid lm, the disturbance caused by pulsation and the secondary ow enhanced greatly
the heat transfer and the critical heat ux of the evaporator section. In nal, two dimensionless empirical
correlations were proposed for predicting the heat transfer coecients of the evaporator section before and
after dryout occurs.
2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Looped heat pipe; Small diameter coiled pipes; Boiling; CHF

1. Introduction

Considerable progress in utilization of the looped heat pipe (LHP) has been made in the last
decades both for the demands in energy conservation and in environmental protection. The main
advantage of a LHP is that its evaporator and condenser can be installed in dierent locations. It
provides more exibility when space limitation is crucial or when the heat recovery site for the
evaporator is not at the same place as the energy utilization site for the condenser. Due to the
dierent ow characteristics in the loop, the boiling and ooding limits for the LHP are not severe
as compared with the conventional heat pipe. In the present applied engineering, the evaporator

*
Corresponding author.

1359-4311/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 1 3 5 9 - 4 3 1 1 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 1 0 7 - 2
90 J. Yi et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 8999

Nomenclature

A total surface area of the inner wall of the evaporator section (m2 )
Cp specic heat (J kg
1 K
1 )
B distance between two coiled tubes (m)
p
Bo Bond number Bo d= r=gql
qv
d inner diameter of the test tube (m)
D helix coil diameter (m)
f pulsation frequency (s
1 )
g gravitational force (N)
h average heat transfer coecient (W m
2 K
1 )
L length of the coiled pipe (m)
N turns of coiled pipe
Nu Nusselt number Nu hd=kl
Pr Prantl number
q heat ux (W m
2 )
Q heating power (W)
R lling ratio
Re Reynolds number (Re du=ml )
u ow velocity (m s
1 )
3
1
V volumetric ow rate (m s )
p
Wo Wo number (Wo d= 2pf =ll )
Greek symbols
k thermal conductivity (J m
1 K
1 s
1 )
m kinematic viscosity (m2 s
1 )
l viscosity (Pa s
1 )
q density (kg m
3 )
r liquid gas interface tension (N m
1 )
Subscripts
in inlet
out outlet
g ue gas
l liquid
s slanted
v vapor

sections of LHP are often made of manifold straight pipes. The studies on heat transfer char-
acteristics of the evaporator sections using coiled pipes seems very absent in the open literatures.
The theoretical studies for steady-state heat transfer performance of a vertical evaporator in the
LHP were based on the one-dimensional, homogeneous two-phase model [1,2], in which the loop
performance is aected by various parameters, such as the geometries of both evaporator and
 J. Yi et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 8999 91

condenser, the working uid and the operation pressure. Design and experimental operation of
large-scale loop type heat pipes have provided much useful information on the heat transfer
characteristics of the LHP [36]. Mou [7] conducted an experimental investigation on the heat
transfer limit of the evaporator of LHP. He found that there are the annular ow dryout region
and the local dryout region inside the evaporator with the inner diameter of the straight pipes
varied from 14 to 25 mm, and that the critical heat ux (CHF) was about 3  104 W m
2 . Most
recently, Zhang and Faghri [8] proposed a theoretical model based upon the thin lm evaporation
and condensation for predicating the heat transfer in a pulsating heat pipe.
Up to now, the evaporator section in the LHP is made from many straight pipes. Because of the
prominent characteristics of higher heat transfer eciency and larger surface area per unit volume
compared with straight pipes, helical coiled pipes are used extensively in heating, refrigerating and
HVAV applications, and in steam generator and condenser designs in power plants. The heat
transfer inside the evaporator section using the helical coiled tube is the natural convective boiling
ow in-tube, but the tube is the coiled tube. This type of boiling system has not been studied.
Kanji et al. [9] found that there is the pulsatile phenomenon in thermosyphons. This phe-
nomenon takes place periodically and obviously inuences the heat transfer performances of
thermosyphons. Therefore, the pulsatile frequency has remarkable inuence on the heat transfer
performances in the coiled pipes. Chen and Guo [10] investigated the cause of the pulsation and
found that exists a relation between the pulsatile frequency and the heat ux, they suggested the
following expression:
f cqn 1
where: c 1:473  10
6 , n 1:075 . Eq. (1) shows that the pulsatile frequency rises with the
increase in the heat ux.
This paper presented the experimental results of the heat transfer characteristics of evaporator
section using small helical coiled pipes in a LHP. Two coiled pipes: the glass pipe and the stainless
steel pipes were used as evaporator section in a LHP, respectively. Flow and heat transfer
characteristics in the coiled tubes of the evaporator section were investigated under the dierent
lling ratios and heat uxes. The ow patterns of two-phase ow in the small-coiled tube were
observed through a visualized observation. The experimental results show that the combined
eect of the evaporation of the thin liquid lm, the disturbance caused by pulsation and the
secondary ow increased greatly the average heat transfer coecient and CHF of the evaporator
section. The disturbance of vapor also intensied the heat transfer of dryout regions. In nal, two
dimensionless empirical correlations were proposed for predicting the heat transfer coecients of
the evaporator section before and after dryout occurs.

2. Experimental apparatus and procedure

2.1. Visualization experiment apparatus

A schematic diagram of the experimental apparatus is sketched in Fig. 1. The LHP was made of
borosilicate grass with overall volume 56 cm3 . The coil of the evaporator section was 412 turns with
the ID of 4 mm, the coil diameter of 100 mm and the coil distance of 2 mm. A columned electrical
92 J. Yi et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 8999

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the visualization experimental apparatus.

heater was put into the coil to heat it. The heating power could be varied by using a transformer.
Water came from the tank was used as the coolant. To distinguish the ow pattern in the coiled
pipe explicitly, water with tiny red paint was used as working liquid. The ow status in the glass
tube could be recorded by a camera. The lling ratio, R, which is dened as the ratio of lling
quantity to overall volume, were 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, respectively. The change of ow patterns
could be observed by changing the heating power under the dierent lling ratio conditions.
No insulating measurement was performed for the visualization experiment, which was carried
out at the room temperature about 20 C, so the inuence of heating power on the ow patterns
could only be analyzed qualitatively.

2.2. Heat transfer experiment apparatus

A schematic diagram of the experimental apparatus is sketched in Fig. 2. The steam pipe and
liquid pipe was made of the low carbon steel tube (1020) with Ls of 7.74 m, Ll of 5.52 m and inner
diameter of 14 mm. The evaporator was made of three pieces of stainless steel coiled pipes in
parallel as shown in Fig. 3(a). The inner diameters and the lengths of the tubes were 4 mm and
about 4 m respectively. The coiled pipes were made by a cold bending processing of the straight
pipes lled with ne sand. After the tubes were bended, they were carefully washed using hot
water to clean inner surface. On the wall surface of the coiled tubes, only some very slight folds
were observed. The inner and outer diameter, and the wall thickness of every coil were measured
by using a sample cut of that coil. Table 1 lists the dimensions and parameters of the coiled pipes
used in this investigation. The geometrical size of the helix coil was shown in Fig. 3(b). The helix
coil diameter is obtained from the following equation:
!,
XN q
2
D D2s
B=2 N 2
i1

The coil length is calculated from Lc pDN and the coil turns are separated from each other using
stainless steel spacer with a specic length to x the pitch of the coil. The distance between the
outer surfaces of two coils, B, was xed at 2 mm.
 J. Yi et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 8999 93

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the heat-transfer experimental apparatus.

Fig. 3. (a) Positions of thermocouples on the coiled pipes; (b) geometric parameters of the coiled pipes.

Table 1
Geometric dimensions of the coiled pipes
Coil no. d=D L (mm) B (mm) N D (mm) Ds (mm)
1 0.062 3631 2 18 64.2 64.2
2 0.049 4132 2 16 82.2 82.2
3 0.040 4092 2 13 100.2 100.2
94 J. Yi et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 8999

Eighteen chromelconstantan thermocouples were welded on the outer surface of the external
coiled pipe in one side as shown in Fig. 3(a). The average wall temperature of the inner surface of
coiled pipe was calculated with one dimensional cylindrical heat conduction equation using the
average temperature of 18 thermocouples. The inlet and outer temperatures of working uid in
the evaporator section were measured by two chromelconstantan thermocouples. The inlet and
outlet temperatures of the condenser section were measured using two chromelconstantan
thermocouples inserted into the bottom and top locations of the condenser section. The mass ow
rate of the cooling water was measured individually using a calibrated oating-type ow meter
with precision 3%. Two Le Chatelier armored thermocouples were mounted at the top and
bottom of the ow path of the ue gas to measure the temperatures of the ue gas which passed
through the outside the evaporator section and heated working uid in the evaporator section. A
pressure gauge was installed at the outlet of the coiled pipes for measuring the operating pressure
inside the evaporator. A calibrated orice meter with precision 0.5% measured the volume ow
rate of the ue gas. The all readings of the thermocouples and calibrated orice meter were au-
tomatically recorded using a data acquisition system, and the data were stored for the calcula-
tions. The LHP was thermally insulated by berglass.
In the present experiment, the heat losses to the surroundings were less than 6% according to
the calculations of the heat balance. These heat losses have been considered in the arrangement of
the data.
By the energy conservation law, the heating power from the ue gas can be expressed as:
Q qg Vg Cpg tg in
tg out  3
Dening the mean heat transfer coecient, h, as:
Q
h 4
ADt

Dt tw
tv 5

q Q=A 6
where: A is the total surface area of the inner wall of the evaporator section. tw is the mean wall
temperature of the evaporator section. tv is the operating temperature of LHP, which was replaced
by the outlet temperature of the evaporator section.
In the each test running, the loop was rst evacuated to reach 0.016 bar by a vacuum pump.
Then, distilled water was lled through opening the liquid-level gauge until the desired the lling
rate was achieved.
The evaporator section was heated by the high-temperature ue gas owed through it (the ue
gas temperature was about 300500 C according to the heating requirement). Heating of the
evaporator section was started by turning on the oil atomizer and igniting gasoline in the com-
bustion chamber. The ow rate and temperature of the ue gas were adjusted manually.
In the present experiment, the thermocouples were calibrated to ensure the accuracy within
0.2 K in the measuring ranges. The maximum uncertainty in wall superheat was 4%. The
maximum uncertainty in wall heat ux was about 3%. The maximum uncertainty in the heat
transfer coecient was 7%.
 J. Yi et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 8999 95

3. Results and analysis

3.1. The ow characteristics

In the visualization experiment, the following four ow patterns were observed from the inlet to
the outlet with the variation of lling ratio and heating power: single-phase liquid ow, bubbly
ow, slug ow, unsteady stratied ow, as shown in Fig. 4. No annular ow was found as in a
vertical pipe.
The location of single-phase liquid ow transited to slug ow and the location of slug ow
transited to stratied ow were moved upward along the coiled pipe with increasing the lling
ratio at xed heating power. On the other hand, these transitional locations would also move
downward along the coiled pipe with increasing the heating power at xed falling rate. The
transitional locations of ow patterns would oscillate frequently because of pulsation. In general,
the bubble region of slug ow could occupy longer zone with increasing the heating power.
Fig. 4(a) shows the ow status corresponding to the cases of high lling ratios and low heating
powers, such as R 50%, Q 300, 400 W. In this case, single-phase liquid ow could change to
bubbly ow in the downside of the coiled pipe. Meanwhile, small bubbles were dispersed into
single ow in the top of coiled pipe, but it only occupied very short zone. Since the subcooling of
water was quite high, so the departed diameter of the bubble was very small. With the rise of the
ow path length, bubbles would ceaselessly grow and coalesce; diameters of bubbles exceed nally
the ID of the coiled pipe and formed slug ow.
Fig. 4(b) shows the ow status corresponding to the cases of relatively low subcooling of water
and relatively high heating power. In this case, the departed diameters have exceed the ID of the
coiled pipe and formed slug ow in most zone of the coiled pipe.
Fig. 4(c) shows a stratied ow status in the upside of the coiled pipe near the outlet. It was
transited from downstream slug ow. Here, two-phase ow was pushed abruptly to the outlet due

Fig. 4. Two-phase ow patterns in the coiled pipes.

96 J. Yi et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 8999

to the eect of pulsation, which increased rapidly uid velocity and caused an unsteady stratied
ow. This pulsation phenomenon took place periodically. Since the incidence angle of the coiled
pipe was quite little and the vapor velocity was also quite low, so annular ow pattern has not
been observed in all tests.
Fig. 4(d) shows a liquid bridge phenomenon between adjacent sides, in the descendant period of
the pulsation. Since the velocity was quite slow, so the liquid lm attached on the wall could
formed the liquid bridge between adjacent sides, and slug ow occurred once more. The pulsation
was repeated in this period.
In the visualization experiment, Bond number was less than 2. The surface tension has
prominent eect on the two-phase ow and heat transfer in the tube, according to the report by
Chen and Guo [10]. The liquid bridge of slug ow could supply liquid to the local dryout regions
due to the action of pulsation. It could avoid the expending of the dryout region, and hence
improve the heat transfer performance inside coiled pipes.

3.2. The heat transfer characteristics

Fig. 5 shows the distribution of wall temperatures of the outside coiled pipe (D 100:2 mm) at
dierent thermocouples positions with variation of the measuring time, at R 16%. The hori-
zontal coordinate stands for various thermocouples positions (see Fig. 3(a)) and declining coor-
dinate stands for the measuring time. As shown in Fig. 5, the wall temperatures take on distinctive
uctuation with the rise of the thermocouples positions. The wall temperatures at the bottom
positions of the coiled pipe were higher than those at the middle and top positions. The tem-
perature contribution shown in Fig. 5 can be explained by the visualized observation. In the
bottom zone of the coiled pipe, the ow pattern belongs single ow and bubbly ows; hence, the
wall temperatures are the highest due to little heat transfer coecients in this zone. In the middle
zone of the coiled pipe, the ow pattern belongs slug ow; hence, the wall temperatures are the
lowest due to great heat transfer coecients in this zone. In the top zone of the coiled pipe, the
ow pattern belongs stratied ow. Since the heat transfer in stratied ow zone is less than that
in slug ow zone, so, the wall temperatures have somewhat increase compared with the middle
zone of the coiled pipe.

Fig. 5. Temperatures distribution on wall of the coiled pipes.

 J. Yi et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 8999 97

Slug ow region consists of bubbly region and liquid region, alternately. In bubbly region, the
evaporation of the thin liquid lm, the disturbance induced by pulsation and secondary ow result
in very great local heat transfer coecient. In liquid region, pulsation and secondary ow also
enhance the disturbance of single-phase uid. Therefore, the heat transfer performance of the
evaporator section is augmented. The average heat transfer coecients for the coiled pipe should
be higher than that for the vertical straight pipe. A conclusion can be drawn from above analysis
that the optimum heat transfer performance can be achieved when the bubble region almost
occupy the whole zone of the coiled pipe.
Fig. 6 shows the experimental results of the average heat transfer coecient, h, versus the heat
ux, q, at dierent lling ratios. It is found that the average heat transfer coecients increase
rstly and then descended as the heat ux increases. There are the maximum values of heat
transfer coecients corresponding to each lling ratio. This fact can be explained as follows:
with the increase in the heat ux, the bubble regions can occupy longer zone in the coiled pipe for
a xed lling ratio, i.e., the thin liquid lm could possess larger area. If the bubble regions oc-
cupy the whole zone of the coiled pipe, evaporation of the thin liquid lm could be achieved
adequately, then, an optimum average heat transfer coecient is obtained. This optimum average
heat transfer coecient corresponds to the CHF. With the further increase in the heat ux, the

Fig. 6. The average heat transfer coecient versus the heat ux with dierent lling ratios.
98 J. Yi et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 8999

evaporation zone of liquid lm would dry out gradually. Although the pulsatile frequency can
also increase, the durable dryout region extends and the average heat transfer coecients decrease
gradually. As shown in Fig. 6, the CHF increases with increasing the lling ratio. The CHF in-
creases from 12 to 39 kW m
2 when R varies from 11% to 18%, in this experiment.
In the present experimental range, the maximum value of wall temperatures did not exceed
380 C. It shows that this LHP has a better safe performance than the straight heat pipe.
Because it was very dicult to control the ow rate of ue gas, in the test running for R 13%,
the experimental data near the CHF point could be completely obtained. The average heat
transfer coecients near the CHF point seem too little compared with other lling ratio cases.
By correlating the experimental data, the following empirical correlations were obtained. In the
range of the heat ux less the CHF,
Nu 10
5:7602 Rel3:5939 Prl
0:8809 Bo2:2350 Wo
4:1044 R
9:4881 7
The applicability range of Eq. (7) is:
Rel 221:3971748:769; Prl 0:8902:711; Bo 0:56911:5584;
Wo 977:4311322:889; R 1118%; d=D 0:0400:062; q 539 kW=m2 :
The correlation had an accuracy range of 19%.
In the range of the heat ux larger the CHF,
Nu 15:3188Re
0:0373
l Prl
2:9680 Bo1:6674 Wo
3:7535 R2:2973 8
The applicability range of Eq. (8) is:
Rel 393:1244694:202; Prl 0:8903:103; Bo 0:5641:721;
Wo 615:6642043:846; R 1118%; d=D 0:0400:062; q 1062 kW=m2 :
The correlation had an accuracy range of 12%.where: Nu and Rel are dened as, respectively,
Nu qd=Dtkl , Rel ud=ml . u is calculated by
4q
u 9
dql hfg
It must be noted that Eqs. (7) and (8) can be only applied in the range tested. Since the distance
between two coiled tubes, B, was xed at 2 mm, and, the ratio of the inner diameter to the tube
length, d=L, was xed about 0.001, in this experiment.
We have not found the open literature that uses the coiled pipe evaporator in a LHP up to now,
so the comparison cannot be performed between the same type of the coiled pipe evaporators for
the LHP. On the other hand, the quantitative comparison is very dicult between this experiment
and other LHP using vertical straight pipes, since the geometric conditions are completely dif-
ferent among them. For a LHP using vertical straight pipes, the heat transfer coecients and the
CHF are strongly aected by the geometric sizes, i.e., the ID and the ratio of the ID to the tube
length, d=L. In the various present studies, the geometric sizes varied widely and several empirical
correlations were proposed [47]. However, the data in this study are not completely in agreement
these correlations. It has been found that the CHF decreases remarkably with decreasing the d=L
[6,7,11]. In this study, the ID is quite small (4 mm), and the d=L is also quite little (about 0.001).
 J. Yi et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 23 (2003) 8999 99

These two parameters are much less than that in the present studies using vertical pipes. But, in
this study, the CHF is still quite great, and, can reach 40 kW/m2 (please see Fig. 5 (c)). In Ref. [7],
for a LHP evaporator using vertical pipe with ID of 1425 mm and the minimum d=L of 0.0047,
the maximum CHF is about 36 kW/m2 . Therefore, we can consider the coiled pipe evaporator has
a better heat transfer characteristics than the straight pipe evaporator.

4. Conclusions

Based on the visualization experiment and heat transfer experiment. The following conclusions
can be made:

1. The slug ow is the main ow pattern in the small-coiled pipe (d 4 mm). The pulsation has
remarkable inuence on ow and heat transfer. No annular ow was found as in a vertical pipe.
2. The evaporation of the thin liquid lm, the disturbance caused by pulsation and the secondary
ow in the coiled pipe do not enhance average heat transfer coecient, but also improve greatly
the CHF.
3. Since the action of pulsation, a relatively high heat transfer coecient can be achieved even if in
durable dryout region.
4. Two empirical correlations are proposed for predicting the heat transfer in two heat ux range
before and after the CHF point, respectively.

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