Experimental Investigation of the Heat Transfer Performance of a Hybrid Cooling Fin Thermosyphon

Abstract

The effect of fill volume on the heat transfer performance of a hybrid cooling fin thermosyphon, characterized by an airfoil crosssectional shape and a slotshaped cavity, is investigated. The performance was examined at three fill volumes, expressed as a percentage of the evaporator section: 0%, 60%, and 240%. These were chosen to represent three distinct regimes: unfilled, filled, and overfilled evaporator sections, respectively. The cross section of this copper–water thermosyphon has a NACA0010 shape with a chord length of 63.5 mm and an aspect ratio (ratio of the length of the evaporator section to the cavity width) of 1.109. The evaporator length comprises 8.3% of the total thermosyphon length. The aircooled condenser section was placed in a uniform air flow in the test section of an open return wind tunnel. The rate of heat transfer, or performance, was measured as a function of fill volume and evaporator temperature. The heat transfer performance increased by 100–170% by adding 0.86 ml of working fluid (deionized water), i.e., when the fill volume increased from 0% to 60%, which illustrates the improvement of a cooling fin's heat transfer rate by converting it to a hybrid cooling fin thermosyphon. Of the fill volumes investigated, the thermosyphon achieves a maximum heat transfer rate and highest average surface temperature at the 60% fill volume. Overfilling the evaporator section at 240% fill results in a slight decrease in performance from the 60% fill volume. The results of this study demonstrate the feasibility of hybridizing a cooling fin to act both as a cooling fin and a thermosyphon.