Nuclear Engineering and Design 392 (2022) 111754

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Nuclear Engineering and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nucengdes

Parameter sensitivity study on startup characteristics of high temperature

potassium heat pipe
Haiwang Yang , Chenglong Wang *, Dalin Zhang , Jing Zhang , Wenxi Tian , Suizheng Qiu ,
G.H. Su
Department of Nuclear Science and Technology, State Key Lab. of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Shaanxi Key Lab. of Advanced Nuclear Energy and Technology,
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710049, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Due to high power density, compact structure and easy modular assembly, heat pipe cooled reactor (HPR) is
Heat pipe cooled reactor considered as an excellent candidate for removable power supply system. The heat transfer characteristic of
High temperature heat pipe liquid metal heat pipe, which is the only device to conduct the heat from reactor core, is extremely important for
Frozen startup
the safe operation of HPR. In this paper, the heat transfer performances of high temperature potassium heat pipes
Parameter sensitivity study
(Φ28 × 800 mm) are tested under different heating power (300–1000 W), wick mesh (600 and 800), filling
charge amount (20 g and 50 g) and inclination angle (0◦ , 45◦ , 90◦ ). The results show there is a temperature
difference of 170 ◦ C in condensation section at heating power of 336 W. With the increase of heating power, the
melting and propagation speed of the working fluid in container increases, and the heat pipe performance is
improved. Both wick mesh and filling charge amount increasing can promote the heat transfer performance of
heat pipes, the filling charge amount is the main influencing factor to prevent from overheating at evaporation
section. However, the heat pipes, having 50 g potassium, have a great geyser boiling phenomenon at 45◦ and 90◦
which could threaten the safe operation of HPR. This study provides experimental data support and theoretical
basis for design and optimization of liquid metal heat pipes.

1. Introduction
The heat pipe cooled reactors (HPRs), which have the advantages of
highly power density, compact structure, lower cost and easy modular
assembly, have broad application prospects, such as space energy supply
(Koenig et al., 1977); exploration of deep ocean (Wang et al., 2020);
power supply in remote areas (Yan et al., 2020)and so on. The HPRs
usually use highly enriched UO2 or UN as fuel and transfer fission heat to
energy conversion system with liquid metal heat pipes. Los Alamos
National Laboratory (LANL)designed a series of the Heatpipe Operated
Mars-Surface Fission Reactor (HOMER) in 2000, HOMER-15 (Poston
et al., 2002) featured 19 sodium heat pipes as heat transfer device and
Stirling engine as thermoelectric conversion device, and 61 potassium
heat pipes convey fission heat to the Stirling engines in HOMER-25
(Amiri et al., 2006). NASA raised Kilopower (Marc and Patrick, 2014)
in 2006, using sodium heat pipes to conduct heat to Stirling convertors
and titanium water heat pipes to remove the waste heat. China Institute
of Atomic Energy also proposed the lithium heat pipe cooled modular
fast reactor (HPCMR) (Gu et al., 2013); with a design power about 100
kWe, which employs lithium heat pipes as reactor core cooler, potassium
heat pipes as radiator to reject the waste heat. Therefore, liquid metal
heat pipe, which is the main heat transfer device of HPRs, is crucial to
the safe operation for the reactors.
For heat pipe, the working fluid absorbs heat and vaporizes at one
side, flows to release heat at the other side through the vapor–liquid
density difference, and then returns to continue conveying heat with the
help of capillary force produced by wick. The sodium, potassium and
lithium, which have excellent thermal conductivity above 500 ◦ C
(Tournier and El-Genk, 2005), are considered as the excellent heat
transfer media for high temperature heat pipe. Due to high conduction
efficiency, great isothermality and super silence, Grover et al. (Grover
et al., 1964) first designed and tested high temperature sodium heat
pipes in 1960 s. Since then; there are many experimental researches to
describe the performance of liquid metal heat pipe during frozen startup.
Faghri et al. (Faghri et al., 1991) find that the startup behavior of sodium
heat pipe greatly depends on the heat rejection rate at condensation
section. Wang et al. (Wang et al., 2020) find that the startup

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: chlwang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (C. Wang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2022.111754
Received 16 June 2021; Received in revised form 2 December 2021; Accepted 27 March 2022
Available online 2 April 2022
0029-5493/© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
H. Yang et al.
Nomenclature
C confidence coefficient
D diameter of heat pipe (mm)
o.d out diameter of heat pipe(mm)
d diameter of vapor molecule (m)
i.d inside diameter of heat pipe(mm)
K specific heat ratio
Kn Knudsen number
L characteristic length (m)
P pressure (Pa)
Q heat transfer power (W)
R thermal resistance (K⋅W− 1)
T temperature (◦ C)
U evaluation of uncertainty
v velocity (m⋅s− 1)
Ps saturation pressure in molecular space (Pa)
KB Boltzmann constant
Greek symbols
Δ measurement error
performance of high temperature wick-type heat pipe under constant
heat flux is mainly influenced by capillary and viscosity heat transfer
limit. Lee (Lee and Lee, 2001) point out that with the heating power
increasing, the evaporation rate at the vapor–liquid interface increases
and the heat pipe startup time is shortened. Jang (Jang, 1992) in­
vestigates the startup characteristic of potassium heat pipe; the result
shows the startup period was significantly reduced with a large heat
input and the heat input should be maintained less than the capillary
limit.
The heat transfer performance of heat pipe is also affected by wick
structure. Joon et al. (Boo and Park, 2005) investigate the thermal
performance of sodium heat pipes, the result shows compared with the
screen mesh wick, the wick with lattice structure provides additional
paths to enhance the return of working fluid, which improves the heat
transfer performance of heat pipe. Faghri et al. (Faghri et al., 1991) also
find that the loosely wrapped screen wick can enhance the maximum
heat capacity of heat pipe, due to the annular gaps both between the
wick and the heat pipe wall and between adjacent screen layers.
Besides, several experiments have been performed on the effect of
filling charge amount and inclination angle. Manoj et al. (Manoj et al.,
2013) investigate the effect of filling ratio on the thermal efficiency of
heat pipes; the result shows the sodium heat pipe with a liquid filling
rate of 40% has lower heat transfer resistance and better isothermal
property. Lu et al. (Lu et al., 2017) find that with the charging amount
increases from 22.6 g to 26 g; the sodium heat pipe can start up suc­
cessfully, which means a high charging ratio can improve the startup
performance of heat pipe. However, Tournier et al. (Tournier and El-
Genk, 2003) discover that excess liquid working fluid accumulates at
the end of condensation section, causing temperature sharply drop. In
addition, Wang et al. (Faghri et al., 1991) discover that the inclination
angle is beneficial to lower the minimum input power required for
successful startup and shorter the startup time. Liu et al. (Liu et al.,
2010) find that the inclination angle plays an important role on the
thermal performance of heat pipe and the inclination angle of 45◦ is the
best option to enhance heat transfer. However, Tian (Tian et al., 2021);
Sukchana (Sukchana and Jaiboonma, 2013)and Kang (Kang et al., 2019)
point out that the best inclination angle is 30◦ ,60◦ ,90◦ respectively.
In a word, the previous researches are only based on single influ­
encing factor and there is no comprehensive parameter sensitivity
analysis. In this paper, four potassium heat pipes with different pa­
rameters are designed and manufactured for comparative experiment
2
Nuclear Engineering and Design 392 (2022) 111754
σ surface tension (N⋅m− 1)
ρ density (kg⋅m− 3)
λ molecular free-path (m)
Subscripts
a adiabatic section
B B-type uncertainty
c condenser section
e evaporator section
ent entrainment
eq equivalent
fg from fluid to gas
ins instrument
l liquid state
s saturation state
sys data acquisition system
T1 one thermocouple
T2 two thermocouples
tr transition
v vapor state
and analysis, considering the comprehensive influence of heating
power, wick mesh, filling charge amount and inclination angle. This
study provides data support and theoretical basis for the design and
optimization of liquid metal heat pipes.
2. Experimental setup
2.1. Potassium heat pipe
Four high temperature potassium heat pipes, as shown in Fig. 1, are
used to conduct the experimental study. The heat pipe consists of a
container, screen mesh wick and heat transfer working fluid (high-purity
potassium). The total length of heat pipe is 800 mm, the o.d. and i.d. of
the heat pipe are 28 mm, 24 mm, respectively. Double-layer mesh, 2
mm, are rolled into a wick and welded on the inner wall of heat pipe. The
container and screen mesh wick are made of stainless steel 316. Table 1
shows the parameters of heat pipes, the main difference is filling charge
amount and wick mesh. The performance of heat pipe highly depends on
the properties of wick like porosity, permeability and capillary radius
which are evaluated and listed in Table 2.
2.2. Experimental system
The schematics of experimental system are shown in Fig. 2, which
consist of heating system, angle adjustment system and data acquisition
system. The heating system is mainly composed of heating wires and
voltage regulator. The heating wires are wound clockwise on the
evaporation section of heat pipe as heating source, and heating power is
adjusted through the voltage regulator which is connected to the ends of
heating wires.
The angle adjustment system includes a reducer and clamping de­
vice. One end of clamping device is fixed with the output shaft of
reducer, and the other end is locked with the condensation section of
heat pipe. Handle rotation drives the transmission of worm gear, which
is inside the reducer, to realize the heat pipe angle adjustment.
In terms of data acquisition system, it is mainly composed of K-type
thermocouples, data acquisition card and computer. The heat pipe outer
wall temperature is measured along axial direction using K-type ther­
mocouples, the temperature values are acquired and recorded by data
acquisition card and computer. The positions of the measuring point of
K-type thermocouple are 60 mm, 160 mm, 260 mm, 360 mm, 460 mm,
H. Yang et al. Nuclear Engineering and Design 392 (2022) 111754

Fig. 2. Schematic of the experimental system.

reduce heat dissipation. Finally, the condensation section of heat pipe is

cooled by natural air convection.

2.3. Uncertainty analysis

Errors are inevitable during the experiments, and the uncertainty

analysis is an effective method to determine the accuracy of data and
evaluate experiments. In this paper, the experimental uncertainties of
temperature and heating power are calculated. The temperature
measuring device is K-type thermocouple, and the error of this type
thermocouple is less than 3 ◦ C, which is from the product descriptions.
The thermocouple temperature measurement uncertainty can be ob­
√̅̅̅
tained from Eq. (1), where 3 is confidence coefficient. There are two
Fig. 1. High temperature potassium heat pipe. thermocouples arranged at every point, and the uncertainty of temper­
ature can be calculated from Eq. (2).
As for the uncertainty of heating power under air-cooled condition,
Table 1 the voltmeter and ammeter producing the uncertainties of ± 0.1 V and
Main parameters of potassium heat pipe.
Parameters Heat pipe Heat pipe Heat pipe Heat pipe
± 0.1A are used to measure the voltage (0–100 V) and current (0A–8A).
1 2 3 4 Consequently, the uncertainty in heat transfer power caused by in­
length of evaporation section 300 300 300 300 struments is within 2.5%.
(mm)
Δ 3
Length of adiabatic 300 300 300 300 (1)
◦
UB,T1 = = √̅̅̅ = 1.73 C
section (mm) C 3
Length of condensation 200 200 200 200
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
section (mm) ∑2 1.73 2
(2)
◦
Heat pipe o.d. (mm) 28 28 28 28 UB,T2 = ( ) = 1.22 C
Heat pipe i.d. (mm) 24 24 24 24
i=1 2
Wick mesh 600 600 800 800
Wick thickness (mm) 2 2 2 2 3. Results and discussions
Fluid charge (g) 20 50 20 50
During the frozen startup of liquid metal heat pipe, the working fluid
has a phase change from solid to gaseous state, and the heat transfer
Table 2 vapor also changes from free molecules to continuous vapor. According
Properties of wicks. to the researches of Jang and Faghri et al. (Jang et al., 1990; Cao and
Wick Structure porosity Permeability (m2) capillary radius (m) Faghri, 1993); Knudsen number (Kn) is selected as a standard to describe
the starting process of heat pipe, as the formulation (3). The λ means
600 mesh 0.66 3.19 × 10− 10
6.4 × 10− 5

800 mesh 0.72
1.55 × 10− 10 2.3 × 10−
560 mm, 660 mm and 760 mm from evaporating end, respectively (see
in Fig. 3). Each measuring point is arranged two thermocouples at 180◦
to increase the measurement accuracy, and each thermocouple is buried
in the groove and then tightened with steel hoop to reduce the mea­
surement errors. Besides, the evaporation and adiabatic section of po­
tassium heat pipe are wrapped with a novel thermal insulation brick to
5 mean molecular free path and D means the diameter of vapor region.
When Kn is more than 0.01, the vapor is rare. Otherwise, the vapor is
continuous. As a result, the transition temperature Ttr is about 294 ◦ C,
which is calculated from formulation (4) (Jang, 1992). In this paper, the
temperature of measuring point 8 reaching 294 ◦ C is considered as the
standard for successful start of heat pipe, and the time of point 8
reaching 294 ◦ C is the heat pipe startup time.

3
H. Yang et al. Nuclear Engineering and Design 392 (2022) 111754

Fig. 3. Position of measuring point.

( ) √̅̅̅ 2
√k̅̅B Tv
λ 2πd DPs (Ttr )Kn
Kn = =
2 πd2 P
(3) Ttr = Tv = , Kn = 0.01 (4)
D D kB

Fig. 4. Temperature evolution of heat pipe 1 under various startup power.

4
H. Yang et al.
3.1. Effect of heating power
When the heat pipe 1 is in the horizontal position, the wall tem­
perature evolution under various power is shown in Fig. 4. The tem­
perature of evaporation section, which increases linearly, reaches the
transition temperature(294 ◦ C) after 13 min at 336 W. Meanwhile, the
temperature of adiabatic section increases slowly through axial heat
conduction and the condensation section stays nearly at environmental
temperature (see Fig. 4(a)). After about 34 min, the condensation sec­
tion is about to start up. During the startup process of condensation
section, due to the relatively low heating power, the heat absorption at
evaporation section and the release at condensation section have
reached a dynamic balance, resulting in a lower pressure difference in
the container. It is difficult to drive vapor front to the end of conden­
sation section. Consequently, the temperature of point 8 does not reach
294 ◦ C, and there is a temperature difference about 170 ◦ C between
point 7 and point 8, the isothermal and heat transfer performance of
heat pipe 1 are relatively poor.
With the increase of heating power, the temperature of point 8 has
reached 294 ◦ C (see Fig. 4(b) and (c)), the isothermal property and heat
transfer performance of heat pipe 1 are gradually restored. It indicates
that the heat flux of evaporation section increasing is beneficial to the
startup of heat pipe. On the one hand, a larger heating power increases
the axial temperature difference of heat pipe, enhancing the axial heat
conduction, which accelerates the melting of working fluids in the wick.
On the other hand, it also increases the pressure difference in container,
accelerating the propagation of continuous vapor front and shortening
the startup time.
As shown in Fig. 4(d), the heat pipe 1 does not transition to steady-
state operation after starting at 910 W. Instead, the temperature of
evaporation section rises sharply and the condensation section drops
rapidly, the axial temperature gradient of heat pipe 1 increases signifi­
cantly. This phenomenon may be the deterioration of heat transfer
caused by drying at evaporation section (Faghri et al., 1991); which has
been related to the structure of wick and filling charge amount. The
specific analysis will be carried out in the Section 3.2 and Section 3.3.
These results suggest that the appropriate increase in heating power can
improve heat transfer performance of heat pipe, but the maximum
heating power of heat pipe is limited by the heat transfer deterioration in
evaporation section.
Fig. 5. Heat transport limits of heat pipe 1 and 3.
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Nuclear Engineering and Design 392 (2022) 111754
3.2. Effect of wick mesh
Fig. 5 shows the capillary limit and entrainment limit of heat pipe
1and heat pipe 3, determined by wick structure, which are obtained
from formulation (5) and (6). Where rc refers to capillary radius, Fl and
Fv are liquid friction coefficient and vapor friction coefficient,
respectively.
2σ
− ρl gdv cosϕ ± ρl glsinϕ
Qc = rc
(5)
(Fl + Fv )leff
ρσ
QE = Av hfg ( v )2
1
(6)
2rhs
At the 910 W (Fig. 6), the heat pipe 1 may have encountered the
capillary limit, and it is difficult for liquid potassium to return, resulting
dry out at evaporation section. The 800-mesh wick has a smaller
capillary radius, producing stronger capillary force, which can speed up
the circulation rate of working fluid and keep the wick moist in the
evaporation section. Thus, the heat pipe 3 smoothly transitions to
steady-state operation after starting, and there is no sudden temperature
rise or decline phenomenon.
Fig. 7 shows the startup temperature distribution of heat pipe 2 (600
mesh) and heat pipe 4 (800 mesh) at measuring point 8. As analyzed
earlier, with the help of 800-mesh wick, the temperature of heat pipe 4 is
higher than heat pipe 2 at every heating power, and the isothermal
property is also better. However, the temperature of heat pipe 4 shows a
fluctuating rise trend during the starting process. This is mainly due to
the 800-mesh wick which has a lower permeability. It makes the volume
of liquid working fluid constantly change, contributing to the temper­
ature fluctuations at the end of condensation section. Instead, the 600-
mesh wick of heat pipe 2 has large pores and high permeability, the
backflow of liquid working fluid is relatively stable without temperature
fluctuation. For the design of heat pipes, 800-mesh wick can improve the
ability to withstand thermal load, the temperature fluctuations brought
by it should also be considered.
3.3. Effect of filling charge amount
Fig. 8 shows the startup time of different potassium heat pipes in
horizontal position. The filling charge amount of heat pipe 1 and heat
pipe 3 is 20 g, and the others are 50 g. It is obvious that the startup time
of the heat pipes which have 50 g potassium, are longer and the influ­
ence of filling charge amount on the startup time gradually weakens
over the heating power increasing. It suggests that at lower heating
power, the working fluid is not completely transformed into continuous
vapor to convey the heat. Instead, the excess liquid working fluid ad­
heres into the wick of condensation section, which increases the heat
transfer resistance and causes the temperature of condensation section
to rise slowly. While at high power, the excess liquid working fluid is
squeezed to the end of condensation section, which has little effect on
the temperature rise at condensation section. However, the startup time
of heat pipe 1 is significantly increased at 910 W, as shown in Fig. 8(a).
This is mainly because that insufficient filling charge amount causes
overheating at the evaporation section, which causes the temperature to
rise rapidly and enlarges the axial temperature difference. The axial heat
conduction of heat pipe 1 increases and the phase change heat transfer
decreases, which makes the temperature rise slowly at condensation
section and the startup time of heat pipe 1 increases.
Fig. 9 shows the startup temperature curve of heat pipe 1 and heat
pipe 2 at 910 W. It is obvious that the temperature distribution of
evaporation section becomes more stable after starting and there is no
overheating at heat pipe 2. This suggests that filling charge amount
plays an important role on enhancing heat transfer capacity. Compared
with the heat pipe 3 in Fig. 5, the startup temperature curve of heat pipe
2 is smoother at the same heating power, and heat pipe 2 has a better
isothermal characteristic. Therefore, the filling charge amount is the
H. Yang et al.
Fig. 6. Comparison temperature distribution of heat pipe 1 and heat pipe 3 at 910 W.
Fig. 7. Startup temperature distribution of heat pipe 2 and heat pipe 4 at
measuring point 8.
main influencing factor, and increasing of it can obviously improve the
heat transfer performance of heat pipe.
3.4. Effect of operating angle
Fig. 10 shows that when heating power is 910 W, the axial wall
temperature distribution of heat pipe 1 at 0◦ , 45◦ and 90◦ . Compared
with the temperature distribution at 0◦ , the temperature increases
slowly and tends to be stable after starting and there is not great axial
temperature gradient at 45◦ and 90◦ . It means the gravity is beneficial to
the improvement of heat transfer performance. The gravity facilitates
the backflow of heat transfer working fluid, so that the wick at evapo­
ration section could keep moist and avoid drying out.
Fig. 11 shows the wall temperature distribution of heat pipe 4 at 514
W, 45◦ . Compared with that showed in Fig. 4, the startup process under
this condition have a typical characteristic that the pipe wall
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Nuclear Engineering and Design 392 (2022) 111754
temperature fluctuates periodically. Besides, the temperature fluctua­
tion period of measuring point 1 is the same as other points, but the
direction is opposite (see in Fig. 9(b) and (c)). According to the research
results of Khazaee (Khazaee et al., 2010) and Vieira (Vieira et al., 2020);
this phenomenon is called geyser boiling. In our work, the phenomenon
has experienced three stages: thermal storage, liquid pool growth and
regular temperature fluctuation.
As shown in Fig. 9(a), the heat pipe starts from frozen state until the
temperature of adiabatic section reaches the vapor transition tempera­
ture (294 ◦ C), which is the first stage. At this stage, the heat transfer
working fluid in evaporation and adiabatic section has been melted,
most of it is transformed into continuous vapor and propagates to
condensation section, just a small part of it accumulates in the end of
evaporation section forming a liquid pool under gravity. The liquid pool
gradually overheats with continuous heating, which results the tem­
perature of point 1 rise rapidly. It also means the bubbles in liquid pool
grow slowly to store thermal energy. And then, the bubble bursting
causes the wall temperature fluctuations. Because of a small bubble
bursting, the temperature fluctuation in this period exhibits the char­
acteristics of short period and small amplitude. In addition, the heat
storage process in liquid pool makes the temperature fluctuation di­
rection of the measuring point 1 opposite to others.
The second stage is from the temperature of adiabatic section
reaching vapor transition temperature to the condensation section
reaching 294 ◦ C (see in Fig. 9(b)). As the working fluid in condensation
section melts, the volume of the liquid pool and the generated bubbles
gradually increase, and the energy disturbance caused by bubble
bursting also increases. Therefore, there is a dynamic change of tem­
perature fluctuation period and amplitude.
After the heat pipe has completely started, it is the third stage (see in
Fig. 9(c)). At this stage, the heat pipe has initially established a
continuous vapor flow from evaporation section to condensation sec­
tion. The volume and energy of bubbles tend to be stable, and the
temperature fluctuations show a stable periodicity. The temperature
fluctuation total period is about 270 s, the temperature rise period is
180 s and the fall period is 90 s.The amplitude of measuring point 1 and
others are 90 ◦ C, 26 ◦ C respectively.
When the heat pipe 4 is placed into 90◦ , the temperature fluctuates
more drastically, as shown in Fig. 12. The temperature fluctuations
period is about 390 s and the amplitude of measuring point 1 is 127 ◦ C. It
suggests that the liquid pool maybe deepen at 90◦ and bubble growth is
more complete than that at 45◦ . Therefore, the energy disturbance
H. Yang et al.
Fig. 8. Startup time of different heat pipes.
Fig. 9. Comparison temperature distribution of heat pipe 1 and heat pipe 2 at 910 W.
caused by bubble bursting is greater, making the wall temperature
fluctuation cycle and amplitude greater. This may seriously threaten the
safe operation of heat pipe cooled reactor.
4. Conclusion
In this paper, the heat transfer performance of potassium heat pipes
with different parameters is experimentally investigated. The effects of
heating power, wick mesh, filling charge amount and inclination angle
on the heat transfer performance of heat pipe are conducted. The con­
clusions are below:
The wick mesh increasing is beneficial to improve the heat transfer
performance of heat pipe. The 800-mesh wick has a smaller capillary
radius, producing strong capillary force, which can increase the
reflux rate of working fluid to promote the heat transfer ability.
However, the 600-mesh wick has a higher permeability, which
makes the liquid working fluid return more stable without
fluctuation.
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Nuclear Engineering and Design 392 (2022) 111754
The filling charge amount is the main influencing factor on heat
transfer performance of heat pipe. Insufficient filling charge amount
limits the maximum heating power of heat pipe. Increasing filling
charge amount can avoid heat transfer deterioration caused by the
overheating at evaporation section and significantly improve the
heat transfer performance.
The thermal performance of heat pipes, having 20 g potassium, in­
creases at 45◦ and 90◦ . The gravity facilitates the backflow of heat
transfer working fluid, making the wick stay moist and prevent from
drying out at evaporation section. However, the heat pipes, which
have 50g potassium, has a great geyser boiling phenomenon at this
condition. It may seriously threaten the safe operation of heat pipe
cooled reactors.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Haiwang Yang: Investigation, Data curation, Formal analysis,
Writing – original draft. Chenglong Wang: Conceptualization,
H. Yang et al. Nuclear Engineering and Design 392 (2022) 111754

Fig. 10. Temperature distribution of heat pipe 1 at 0◦ , 45◦ and 90◦ .

Fig. 11. Temperatures distribution of heat pipe 4 at 514 W, 45◦ .

8
H. Yang et al.
Fig. 12. Comparison temperature distribution of point 1 of heat pipe 4 at 45◦
and 90◦ .
Supervision, Writing – review & editing. Dalin Zhang: Supervision,
Writing – review & editing, Funding acquisition. Jing Zhang: Visuali­
zation, Resources, Supervision. Wenxi Tian: Project administration,
Funding acquisition. Suizheng Qiu: Supervision, Funding acquisition.
G.H. Su: Supervision, Funding acquisition.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work is carried out under the financial support of the National
Key Research and Development Program of China (No.
2019YFB1901100), Science and Technology on Reactor System Design
Technology Laboratory and CNNC Science Fund for Talented Young
Scholars.
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