10th IHPS,

Taipei, Taiwan,
Nov. 6-9, 2011

- 190 -
Characteristics of an Open-Loop Pulsating Heat Pipe and Flow
Visualization Using a Transparent Tube
Koji Fumoto
a
, Masahiro Kawaji
b
and Tsuyoshi Kawanami
c

a
Hirosaki University, 3 Bunkyo-cho, Hirosaki, 0368561, Japan
b
City College of New York, New York, NY 10032, USA
c
Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe, 6578501, Japan
Tel : +81-172-39-3676, Fax: +81-172-39-3676, E-mail:kfumoto@cc.hirosaki-u.ac.jp
ABSTRACT
This paper presents preliminary experimental results obtained by using a transparent tube to perform a
visualization experiment for a pulsating heat pipe (PHP). The tube has internal and external diameters of 2.0
mm and 4.0 mm, respectively. The PHPs were made from Teflon tubes in the form of single serpentine
channels. The number of channels in the PHP was fixed at 12. The working fluids employed were water,
ethanol, and self-rewetting fluids. The experimental results indicate that performance depends on the
thermophysical properties of working fluids and the initial movement of the PHP operation. Moreover, in the
start-up period, no nucleation was observed, and the vapor plugs at the evaporator section were formed
mainly by the breakup of liquid slugs. At a steady operation state, large amplitudes of self-sustained
oscillations were observed.
Keywords: Pulsating heat pipe, Open loop, Flow visualization, Transparent tube
1. INTRODUCTION
Pulsating (or oscillating) heat pipes (PHPs) are
one of the latest developments in the area of heat
pipe technology (Akachi, H. et al., 1995). The
PHP is a relatively new type of a heat transfer
device, which may be classified into a special
category of heat pipes. The working fluid in a
PHP oscillates in its axial direction unlike a
conventional heat pipe, where the working fluid
inside the heat pipe circulates continuously by
capillary forces between the heat source and the
heat sink in the form of countercurrent flows. The
PHP has the advantage of not needing a wick
structure to transport the liquid. There is also no
pump; therefore, the PHP is passive and needs no
power for operation other than the rejected heat.
Recently, some studies (Mishkinis, D. et al.,
2006) have been conducted on enhanced heat
pipes using special working fluids, such as
nanofluids or low-boiling fluids. Riehl and Santos
(2011) presented an investigation on nanofluids
applied to LHPs. According to them, when using a
nanofluid in a PHP, its thermal performance could
be improved. Moreover, certain studies (Fumoto,
K. et al., 2010) have presented self-rewetting
fluids as working fluids for PHP.
Studies have also been conducted on flow
visualization for PHP. Fluid flow inside the heat
pipe is very complex because of phase changes
and interactions between the liquid slugs and the
vapor plugs. For example, Tong et al. (2001)
performed flow visualization for a closed-loop
PHP. It was observed that during the start-up
process, the working fluid oscillates with a large
amplitude. Wook et al. (1999) conducted flow
visualization for a PHP made from a brass plate
and an acrylic plate. The above literature survey
shows that most of the previous works focused on
the thermal performance evaluation or simple
flow visualization. Therefore, there are limited
studies on the oscillating behavior in which a
thermal performance enhancement of the PHP is
performed.
Based on the above situation, the main purpose
of this study is to observe oscillating behavior
using various working fluids in the open-loop
PHP (OLPHP) that is made of a transparent Teflon
tube. We have also clarified the heat transport
characteristics using a self-rewetting fluid as the
working fluid.

2. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND
PROCEDURE
2.1. Experimental setup of PHP
Figure 1 illustrates the experimental setup,
which consists of an OLPHP, an electrical power
input source, a temperature data logger, and a PC.
As shown in Figure 2, the PHP assembly was
made of a transparent Teflon tube having an
external diameter of 4.0 mm and a wall thickness
of 1.0 mm. Thus, the internal diameter of the
capillary tube is 2.0 mm. The bending radius of

- 191 -
the U-bend in the evaporator section and the
inverted U-bend in the condensation section is 8.0
mm. These form 24 snake-shaped PHP structures.
The total height of the PHP is 160 mm, and its
total width is 120 mm. The height of the
evaporator section and the condensation section
are 70 mm each. To measure the temperatures of
the heat pipes, six K-type thermocouples with a
wire diameter of 0.1 mm were attached to the heat
pipe surface at three locations in the evaporator
section (T
1
T
3
) and three locations in the
condenser section (T
4
T
6
). Additionally, the heater
temperature (T
h
) and air temperature (T
air
) were
measured. All the thermocouple signals were
sampled and recorded by a PC-based data
acquisition system at a frequency of 3 Hz. A
three-way valve was attached to the heat pipe at
the top to allow for vacuuming and filling of the
heat pipe with a working fluid using a syringe.
The PHP was oriented vertically with an
aluminum block in which the cartridge heater was
attached to the evaporator section at the bottom,
and a cooling block was attached to the condenser
section. Both the heater and the cooler blocks
were attached to the aluminum fin with a thin
layer of thermal grease. A transparent Teflon tube
was sandwiched between the aluminum fins.
Between the evaporator and the condenser
sections was an adiabatic section of 20 mm. The
entire heat pipe excluding the cooling fin was
insulated with 10 mm insulated brick and
polystyrene layers. A fan driven by a DC 12 V
motor was placed at the back of the condenser
section at different distances to provide cooling
air flow (22C25C) at a velocity of 05.2 m/s.
The power supplied to the cartridge heater block
was varied from 0 to 120 W. Three types of
working fluids, i.e., methanol, deionized water,
and a self-rewetting fluid were used in the present
study. The self-rewetting fluid was prepared by
adding 1-pentanol to deionized water to prepare
an aqueous solution of specified mass
concentrations.
2.2. Experimental procedure
For charging a pulsating heat pipe to a specified
fill ratio, the heat pipe was first vacuumed to a
pressure of 92 kPa using a gauge, and by turning
the three-way valve, a specified amount of the
working fluid was injected using the syringe. The
mass of the heat pipe was weighed using an
electronic balance before and after the filling
operation to confirm the fill ratio. The power
supplied to the cartridge heater block was adjusted
after a steady-state temperature condition was
reached over the entire surface of the heat pipe.
When either a dry-out condition or the evaporator
section temperature of 110C was reached,
switching off the heater terminated the
experiment.
















Figure 1 Experimental apparatus









Figure 2 Heat pipe
Experiments were conducted for the evaporator
temperature range of 25C110C, a filling ratio
of 050 vol%, and concentrations of 1-pentanol in
the working fluid of 0.5 wt%. The measurement
uncertainties in the present work are as follows.
Temperature readings: 2.5%
Filling ratio: 0.4%
Self-rewetting fluid concentration: 0.02%
Heater power: 1.0%
Thermal resistance: 3.7%

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Self-rewetting fluid

- 192 -
d 2

L

V
( )g








1 2
The thermophysical properties of the working
fluids are listed in Table 1. Pentanol (C5H12O) is
an alcohol, and the surface tension of aqueous
solutions of alcohols is known to show unusual
variations with temperature. Figure 3 shows the
variations in surface tensions of pentanol, water,
ethanol, and aqueous pentanol (Vochten, R. et al,
1973; JSME Data book 1991; and Jasper, J. J.,
1972) with temperature. The surface tensions of
water, ethanol, and pure pentanol decrease
monotonically with an increase in temperature; in
contrast, the surface tension of aqueous pentanol
decreases gradually with an increase in
temperature, reaching a minimum at
approximately 60C and increasing gradually at
higher temperatures. As shown in Figure 4, the
temperature coefficient of surface tension for the
aqueous pentanol solution is positive and above
60C; because of this, the boiling behavior of the
solution may be altered, and surface
tension-driven convection may occur. Hence, this
working fluid is expected to have a positive effect
on the heat transport performance.












Figure 3 Surface tension of water, ethanol,
pentanol, and its aqueous solution
(from reference 7, 8, and 9)








Figure 4 Schematic diagram of surface
tension-driven convection
Table 1 Properties of working fluids

3.2. Overview of capillary tube
The inner PHP tube hydraulic diameters were
very important parameters for oscillation.
According to Akachi et al. (1996), to ensure that
the fluid forms stable vapor and liquid slugs
randomly inside the PHP, the chosen fluid should
have properties satisfying the following criteria
for the upper limit of the PHP diameter (d):

(1)

where is the surface tension and g is the
gravitational force.
L
and
V
are the mass
densities of the fluid and vapor, respectively.
The amount of liquid
phase in the PHP
depends on the fill ratio.
It was observed that
vapor-liquid slug train
units were randomly
distributed in the PHP.
Figure 4 shows the
coexistence of liquid
slugs and vapor plugs of
different lengths in their
initial condition in the
PHP. They were placed
with vertical orientation
before heat was applied.
This was done because
the force of surface
tension was much higher than the gravitational
force.

3.3. Flow pattern at evaporator region

Working fluid (at 20, 1atm)
Water Ethanol Pentanol
Molar mass
[g/mol]
18.02 46.7 88.2
Density
[g/cm]
0.998 0.7835 0.814
Boiling point
[]
100 78.6 137.9
Latent heat
[MJ/kg]
2.26 0.854 0.59
Solubility in
water
[g/mL]
3.3/100
Figure " Slug!train
unit in capillar+ tube
4%ertical orientation2
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Pure Water
(17)
Pentanol
(16)
T []

[
m
N
/
m
]
Ethanol
(17)
Pentanol aq. sol.
(15)
Liquid
Vapor
Heating wall
High temperature
liquid
Low temperature
liquid
F
l
o
w

d
i
r
e
c
t
i
o
n
Temperature
Surface
tension
Self-rewetting
fluids
Ordinary
liquids
(9)
(7)
(8)
(9)

- 193 -
Figure 5(a)(c) shows a series of photographs
when heat at 80 W is applied to the PHP. The fill
ratio is 50 vol%. The parameters in these figures
are the working fluids, i.e., (a) water, (b) ethanol,
and (c) a self-rewetting fluid (C = 0.5 wt%). The
white arrows indicate the directions of slug
movement with respect to the time indicated.
Figure 5(a) proves that the liquid slug settles into
the short slug. The length of PHP liquid slugs is
very short; it is less than around 0.3 mm. This
phenomenon occurs because of the high surface
tension of the working fluid. For ethanol (Figure
5(b)), the separation behavior of the liquid slug
could not be observed. However, it was confirmed
that minute droplets adhered to the internal
capillary wall. The droplets on the internal wall
are cleaned out with the transfer of the liquid slug
(indicated with white arrows). The liquid slug
becomes smaller with the transfer and cannot be
finally maintained in the slug (225 ms). This is
because of the low surface tension of ethanol. For
the pentanol aqueous solution (Figure 5(c))
having a surface tension between that of water
and ethanol, the liquid slug shows the
characteristics of both ethanol and water. It was
proven that a large number of bubbles were
generated in the fluid slug because of the
self-rewetting phenomena. According to
Nishiguchi and Shoji (2009), when using the
self-rewetting aqueous solution, a mode of boiling
similar to micro-bubble emission boiling (MEB) is
observed. Moreover, according to Wijk et al.
(1956), the changes in the boiling and slug flow
characteristics of the working fluid were observed
after adding the self-rewetting fluid. The
nucleation, growth, and departure of bubbles are
affected by the behavior of the liquid on the
heated surface.















0ms 50ms 100ms 150ms
(a) Water














0ms 100ms 150ms 225ms
(b) Ethanol














0ms 50ms 150ms 200ms
(c) Pentanol aq. sol. (C=0.5wt%)

=50 Vol%, Q=80W
Figure 5 Characteristics of liquid slug flow

3.4. Temperature distribution
Figure 6 shows the temperature distribution
obtained for several working fluids such as water,
ethanol, and aqueous pentanol (0.5 wt%) when the
fill ratio is 50 vol%. This figure also shows the
temperature distribution of the voided PHP (0
vol%). The y- and x-axes show the temperature
and location of the PHP, respectively. In general,
the surface temperature of the PHP has a
temperature gradient. However, in this experiment,
a large temperature gradient was not observed for
the PHP. This is because the thermal conductivity
of the Teflon tube is quite low. In this figure, for
the pentanol aqueous solution, the temperature
difference between the heating area and the
cooling area is smaller than that of other working
fluids. In addition, it is understood that the
temperature difference of water is greater than
that of ethanol, probably because of the higher
evaporative latent heat of the former.

- 194 -












Figure 6 Tube temperature distribution

4. CONCLUSIONS
A series of experiments was performed to
investigate the performance improvement
resulting from the use of a self-rewetting fluid in
the pulsating heat pipe. By adding pentanol to
water to produce a self-rewetting working fluid,
the effects of flow behavior on the working fluid
and other parameters were investigated. The
following conclusions can be drawn from the
current experimental data:
1. The self-rewetting fluid improved the boiling
and bubble-generation behavior in the evaporator
section. Therefore, liquid slug oscillation in the
pulsating heat pipe increases as compared to the
water- or ethanol-filled PHP.
2. The temperature difference of the pentanol
aqueous solution is smaller than that of ethanol
and water.
3. It is possible to obtain frequency oscillation by
a solution concentration using a self-rewetting
fluid solution of 0.5 wt% or less as the working
fluid.

NOMENCLATURE
C : Mass concentration, wt%
d : diameter, mm
Q : Heater power, W
T : Temperature,
T : Temperature Difference,

x : Position, mm
: Fill ratio, Vol% (=V
liq
/V
tot
)
: Surface tension, mN/m
: Density, kg/m
3




Subscripts :
1~6 : Thermocouple location
air : Air
h : Heater
liq : Liquid
L : Fluid
tot : Total
V : Vapor

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge the
financial support given by a research grant from
the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and
Culture, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C),
20560205, 2008.

REFERENCES
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Thermal Performance of Capillary Tunnel
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[2] Mishkinis, D., Corbierre, M. K., Wang, G.,
and Nikanpour, D., Nanofluids As
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[4] Fumoto, K., Kawaji, M., and Kawanami, T.,
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[7] Vochten, R. and Peter, G., Study of the
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Air-Solution Interface, J. Colloind ano
Interface Sci., 42, pp.320327, 1973.
0 40 80 120 160
0
40
80
120
Cooler Heater
Q=80W, =50Vol
( : 0Vol )
: Ethanol
: Water
T

[

]
x [mm]
: Pentanol

- 195 -
[8] JSME Data Book: Thermophysical
Properties of Fluid 4th Edition, 1991(in
Japanese)
[9] Jasper, J. J., The Surface Tension of Pure
Liquid Compounds, J. Physical and
Chemical Reference Data 1, pp. 8411009,
1972.
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[11] Nishiguchi, S. and Shoji, M., A Study of
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Heat Transfer to Boiling Binary Liquid
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