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Chapter 1
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis,

Design and Applications

Marco Marengo∗,‡ and Vadim S. Nikolayev†,§

∗ School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, University of Brighton
Lewes Road, BN2 4GJ Brighton, UK
† Service de Physique de l’Etat Condensé, CEA, CNRS
Université Paris-Saclay, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
‡ [Link]@[Link]
§[Link]@[Link]

The pulsating heat pipes (PHP), also called oscillating heat pipes, belong to the thermal
system category of heat pipes, two-phase passive thermal devices used to transfer heat from
a hot source to a cold region, with very high equivalent thermal conductivity, higher than any
usual metallic material, light, and able to manage high heat fluxes. The PHPs add to standard
two-phase passive systems the option to cover large surfaces, the very simple construction,
the possibility to use very different materials and working fluids, the geometrical adaptability
and flexibility. An a priori design of a PHP is still difficult, even if in the last years a better
comprehension of the internal physical processes has led to accurate predictions of the
experimental results. This chapter aims to offer an introduction to this intriguing topic,
with a comprehensive list of the most important experimental results. The description of
the fundamental processes in a PHP is only given in brief, and a detailed understanding
is left to the following chapter on modeling and simulation. In order to help the reader to
evaluate a possible design of a PHP, the influence of the different parameters and operation
conditions is explained based on the results obtained by researchers in the last 15 years.
Finally, promising potential applications of the PHPs are listed and categorized.

1. Introduction
A closed-loop pulsating heat pipe (PHP, also called oscillating heat pipe, OHP)
usually consists of a sealed, meandering channel connected end-to-end, first
evacuated, and then partially filled with a working fluid. Such a two-phase system
usually has a small vapor quality and typically presents a sequence of internal vapor
bubbles and liquid slugs (Delil, 2000). The liquid slugs occur when the diameter of
the channel is small enough to be capillary, i.e., the liquid meniscus is completely
filling the section and no stratification of the fluid occurs. In one or more sections

1
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2 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

Filling
valve
Condenser

Condenser

Bubble/Slug oscillations
+
Q

cold

cold
hot
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Liquid
slug
Vapor
bubble

Evaporator Evaporator

(a) (b)

Figure 1. (a) Basic scheme of a closed-loop PHP; (b) zoom of the internal flow patterns (adapted
from Khandekar et al., 2004).

of the channel, heating may be applied, while in other sections the tube is in contact
with a cold source able to condense the vapor. The channel can be thermally insulated
in different zones. When heat is provided, the liquid slugs and the liquid film around
the vapor plugs evaporate. Therefore, the heating zone is usually called evaporator.
An increase of temperature and pressure causes the vapor to expand and push the
fluid from the evaporator to the so-called condenser section, where the heat can be
released to a colder environment. The vapor plugs act mechanically as a pump piston
with respect to adjacent liquid slugs. Since the PHP is closed and connected end-
to-end, an expansion of vapor in one point is transmitted through the whole system.
This can result in an oscillation or a pulsation of the fluid, as the compressed vapor
can expand in the opposite direction, depending on the instantaneous local pressures
(Fig. 1). With respect to other kinds of heat pipes, the PHP does not have a wick
structure. The device is also able to work without gravity. As for other kinds of heat
pipes, there is no need for a pump: the device is completely passive. A PHP is very
simple to build, i.e., the manufacturing costs are very low since wick structures are
not needed. On the other hand, it is rather difficult to design PHPs as there is no
simple way to define its operation regimes for an arbitrary geometry and thermal
boundary conditions.
The presence of a confined slug flow is the essence of a good performance of a
PHP, since it is the essential to run the system in the capillary mode. Nevertheless,
other different flow regimes have been observed during PHPs operation (e.g.,
annular, semi-annular, dispersed, stratified). The device performance and operation
primarily depend on the continuous maintenance of non-equilibrium conditions
within the system (Khandekar et al., 2003a; Karimi et al., 2004). Contrary to other
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 3

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Closed-loop PHP Closed-loop PHP Closed-end Open-end PHP

with check valve PHP

Figure 2. Type of PHPs (adapted from Srimuang et al., 2012).

kinds of heat pipes, PHPs fluid motion is inherently unsteady and even chaotic.
There are different types of PHPs, as represented in Fig. 2. Very often, the PHP
design guarantees the presence of one or few zones or sections with a very low
heat exchange, called “adiabatic zone”. In principle, a PHP can operate without
an adiabatic zone, even if a physical contact between the heating system and the
cooling area is not desirable and practical.

2. The PHP and Other Two-Phase Heat Transfer Systems1

In order to understand the potential of PHPs with respect to other classical
heat transfer systems without pumps, for instance conductive solid materials, a
comparison exercise may be useful. For a given power and geometrical dimensions,
the temperature difference between the hot and the cold side is compared, assuming
the same heat flux with the environment. A planar copper PHP with dimension
of 190 × 200 mm, with a tube bended in 32 parallel channels of external/internal
diameter of 2.0/1.1 mm respectively, and filled with 50% volumetric filling ratio
(FR) of FC-72, has an equivalent axial thermal resistance of about 0.6 K/W, which
means that the temperature difference between the evaporator and the condenser
zone is about 30 K when 50 W is provided at the evaporator section. A block of
solid copper with the same dimensions (190 × 200 × 2 mm) transfers 50 W with
0.2
an axial thermal resistance of 390×0.19×0.002 K/W =∼ 1.4 K/W, corresponding to a

1 This example is taken from Mameli (2011). In this case, the PHP has average thermal performance.
Much lower values of the thermal resistance can be found in the literature (see Sec. 5).
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4 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

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Figure 3. Practical designs of a PHP (Charoensawan et al., 2003).

temperature difference of about 70 K, which means 2.5 times the temperature gap
achieved with the equivalent PHP. In addition, the PHP has an equivalent specific
mass of 1,700 kg/m3 , the copper block has instead a density of 8,900 kg/m3 , 5 times
higher. Thus, the choice of PHPs is beneficial for all the applications which require
large, lightweight and passive devices, such as for aeronautical systems. PHPs are
also a promising alternative to standard sintered heat pipes and two-phase systems,
such as thermosyphons or grooved heat pipes, since they can be adapted to different
geometries and be even built using flexible materials (Oshman et al., 2012).
There are many possible geometries of the PHP, and some examples are shown
in Fig. 3.

3. Fundamental Processes in a PHP2

In a PHP, the two-phase flow is commonly characterized as a capillary flow, i.e., the
liquid bulk completely fills the section of the channel (Fig. 4). However, if the heat
power input increases, it is possible to assist in a transition from a slug flow to a semi-
annular and finally to an annular flow (Xue et al., 2017). The liquid slugs have their
menisci formed by the surface tension force bridging the inner capillary dimensions
of the tube. In the evaporator zone, two different phenomena will occur: If the liquid
slug reaches the evaporator in a sub-cooled condition, sensible heating plays the
main role, whereas if the liquid slug is already at saturated conditions, the heating
process is followed by evaporation mass transfer toward either the contiguous vapor

2 For a detailed information about the physical processes, see Chapter 2.

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Table 1. Standard heat pipe versus wickless heat pipes.

Encyclopedia of Two-Phase Heat Transfer and Flow IV (Vol. 1) - 9.75in x 6.5in

Sintered heat pipes PHPs Grooved heat pipes Thermosyphons

Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications

Radial heat flux Very high: up to Medium: up to 30 W/cm2 Medium: High: up to 100 W/cm2
250 W/cm2 up to 20 W/cm2
Axial heat flux High: up to 600 W/cm2 High: up to 300 W/cm2 High: up to 200 W/cm2 High: up to
1,000 W/cm2
Total power Medium: up to 200 W per High: up to 5 kW Medium–high: up to Very high: up to 10 kW
unit 600 W per unit per unit
Thermal resistance Very low:<0.01 K/W Low: <0.05 K/W Very low: <0.02 K/W Very low: <0.01 K/W
Equivalent thermal Very high: up to Medium: up to Very high: up to Very high: up to
conductivity 40 kW/(mK) 10 kW/(mK) 200 kW/(mK) 200 kW/(mK)
Start-up time Fast: few seconds Medium: 2–3 min. Fast: few seconds Medium: 2–3 min
Effect of inclination angle Medium: sintered HPs Critical: proper design High: a proper design High: THM only for
suffer in THM, but are (e.g., high number of avoids strong effects, particular systems
still working. Very turns, 3D design) avoids but THM is difficult (e.g., with valves or
efficient in BHM strong effects. THM active control)
shows poor
performance
3D space adaptability Low High (highly foldable) Medium (flexible) Medium/high
Thermally controlled Small/medium for a vapor Large Small Large
surface chamber
Cost Medium Low Low Low/medium
(wick structure) (capillary tube) (extrusion)

b3084-v1-ch01
Notes: THM: top heat mode, BHM: bottom heat mode. These values are indicative: particular lab experiments and applications may reach different,
application-based limits for example, maximum heat fluxes for thermosyphons with melted sodium may reach higher rates.

page 5
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6 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

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Figure 4. Visualization of a capillary two-phase state in a PHP: in static, isothermal conditions, the
ethanol bubbles fill the channel, while a liquid film appears around them. When the channel is larger
than a given critical diameter, the gravity field may deform the bubble and create an asymmetric
thickness of the liquid film (Khandekar et al., 2003).

bubbles or the creation of new bubbles. In each case, a local increase of temperature
and pressure occurs.
A vapor bubble traveling in the heated zone expands. Also, mass transfer
from the surrounding liquid film and the liquid meniscus occurs, therefore increasing
the local pressure and temperature and providing the pumping work to the system.
The pressure fluctuations in the system are responsible for the slug flow motion.
Since the pressure fluctuations are generated by the heat exchange both at the
evaporator and at the condenser zone, there is no need for pumps to achieve the
two-phase flow motion. At start-up, the thermal power provided in the heated
zone vaporizes the liquid phase and the PHP system moves thermodynamically
to an equilibrium state at a higher pressure/temperature and larger quality following
a globally isochoric process, even if locally the heat and mass transfer processes
are isobaric or polytropic. The bubbles at high pressure push the adjacent liquid
slugs, eventually pushing a slug toward the low temperature zone. This liquid slug
pushes a further bubble in the condenser zone, where condensation finally occurs.
The PHP system remains in a dynamic, unsteady equilibrium, since the branches
are interconnected, and the motion of the liquid slugs and vapor bubbles at one
section of the tube toward the condenser also leads to the motion of slugs and
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 7

bubbles in the following or precedent section toward the evaporator. The result is a
self-sustained thermally driven oscillating flow. The combined action of the driving
force (linked to bubble expansion and liquid evaporation) and restoring force (linked
to the simultaneous motion of bubble toward the condenser and to liquid sub-cooling)
leads to the characteristic oscillation of the vapor bubbles and liquid slugs in the
channels.
It is important to note that the heat transfer coefficients for the sensible heat
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exchange in case of an oscillating bubble and liquid slug are different with respect to
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the linear motion of a bubble or a slug (Yang et al., 2009). The inner fluid dynamics
of PHPs mainly depends on the interplay among phase changes, capillary forces
and gravity. It is important to stress that, even if the system is capillary, gravity
is still playing an important role, as described in Sec. 6.4. Generally, for a given
temperature differential, performance improves with increase in internal diameter.
The internal diameter is a parameter which necessarily affects the very definition
of a PHP (Charoensawan et al., 2003), and therefore it must be considered with
accuracy.
Generally, the capillary limit for the channel diameter d is evaluated in ground
conditions by the criterion (Kew and Cornwell, 1997)

Bo < 4 (1)

where the Bond number is defined as Bo = g(ρl − ρv )d 2 /σ , in which σ is the liquid

surface tension, g is the gravity acceleration and ρl and ρv are the liquid and vapor
densities, respectively.
Therefore, when

σ
d<2
g(ρl − ρv )
one may assume that a slug flow occurs inside the PHP. There is also a minimum
diameter for a PHP to be in operation, as found by authors investigating micro-PHP
(see Taft et al., 2012 for a review), and the limit is still expressed in terms of Bo
number,3 i.e., Bo > 0.4.
The Bond criterion is valid only for static conditions, and therefore in presence
either of a flow or of bulk accelerations (centrifugal forces, microgravity conditions
and so on) it needs to be reconsideredly including other effects. Maezawa et al.
(1997) found, for example, that the inner diameter of a PHP capillary tube must be
lower than the critical inner diameter in Eq. (1) in order to obtain the necessary slug

3 The value of 0.4 here indicated for the minimum Bond number is an average from different results.
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8 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

train pattern of working fluid. Further, it is evident that a microgravity condition

would allow for a larger critical diameter and consequently for higher thermal flux
dissipation as also suggested by Gu et al. (2004). See also Ong et al. (2011) for
further details on the transition between macrochannels and capillary channels.
Since the previous criterion may not be the most suitable in microgravity
conditions and it does not consider the inertial and viscous effects, other criteria
have been suggested. The inertial effects may be considered using the Weber
number, We = ρUl2 d/σ and the usual threshold is We < 4 (Gu et al., 2004), where
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Ul is the liquid slug velocity (not the film velocity and in general not the vapor
velocity). Considering the important role of the viscous dissipation (Baldassari
et al., 2013) proposed a more comprehensive criterion based on the Garimella
number
√
Ga = BoRe < 160 (2)

where Re = ρl Ul d/μl is the Reynolds number related to the liquid phase, where
μl is the liquid viscosity. The static and dynamic critical diameters, dBo and dGa are
calculated respectively with Eqs. (1) and (2) for C6 F14 at 20◦ C, considering a typical
average velocity of the liquid phase equal to 0.1 m/s (Fig. 5).
Due to the variation of the physical properties of the fluids with the temperature,
all the criteria above should be considered at the average temperature of the operating
PHP. Furthermore, such criteria do not consider yet the slug acceleration and the
impulsive motion of the bubbles, which may break up the slugs, causing a transition
to the transient bubbly (dispersed) flow.

3.1. PHP classification and main parameters

The PHP systems are classified in Table 2.

Figure 5. Static and dynamic capillary limits for C6 F14 at 20◦ C, fluid velocity = 0.1 m/s (Nannipieri
et al., 2017).
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 9

Table 2. Classification of the PHP design parameters.

PHP type PHP size Evaporator geometry

Closed loop Large PHP (>1,000 cm2 ) Tubular
Open-end Conventional PHP (∼200 cm2 ) Flat
Close-end Micro-PHPa Helicoidal
Capillary tube Position Staggered
Flat plate Inclination angleb Collector (for open-end
Single loop Bottom-heated mode PHP)
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With/without check valves (BHM)/top-heated mode (THM) Multiple heating zone

Other geometriesc
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Hybrid thermosyphon
Flexible
PHP parameters Temperature range Condenser geometry
Overall length/width Cryogenics (< −40◦ C) Tubular
Overall length of the channel Low-temperature (−40◦ C to 230◦ C) Flat
Number of turns Medium-temperature Helicoidal
Evaporation section length (230◦ C–500◦ C) Staggered
Adiabatic section length High-temperature (>500◦ C) Collector (for open-end
Condenser section length PHP)
Outer/inner diameter Other geometries
Turn radius of the channel
PHP materials Thermal conditions
Wall material Initial vacuum level before filling
Insulation of the adiabatic Total heat input at the evaporator
section Maximum heat flux at the evaporator
Working fluidd Coolant temperature at the
FR condenser
Fluid purity and degassing Start-up power

Note: a A micro-PHP can be considered as micro-PHP

 when the inner diameter is close to or below
the minimum operation diameter d = 0.7 σ/g(ρl − ρv ). b Usually 0◦ is for horizontal position,
while 90◦ is for vertical position. c Other geometries include interconnecting channels, spiral coils
and so on. d The working fluid properties should be given at the average PHP temperature.

3.2. Experimental uncertainties

In order to make the measurements more homogeneous and the comparison among
the different results more robust, a checklist of the experimental uncertainties should
be given.

Parameter uncertainty Temperature uncertainty Thermal conditions

Uncertainty of the inner Voltage and current measurement Vacuum pressure
diameter error measurement
Other size uncertainties Estimated heat losses PHP mass
Internal mean surface Error in the temperature Inclination angle
roughness measure at the evaporator Thermal resistance
Internal average equilibrium Error in the temperature Test reproducibility
contact angle measure at the condenser Thermal hysteresis
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10 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

A standard way to characterize the PHP thermal response and its performance is
to measure the wall temperatures in different locations. Thermocouples can even be
inserted inside the channel with the precaution not to interfere in the hydrodynamic
regimes (Mameli et al., 2014).
It is also important to note that the measurement of the equivalent thermal
resistance Rt = (Te −Tc )/q̇ is a meaningful measure only in steady-state conditions,
while a measure of Rt (or of the effective heat conductance keq = 1/Rt ) in transient
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conditions may offer only a qualitative indication of the performance within the
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same experiment, but it should not be used for comparison with other experiments.
Finally, since the PHP behavior is also linked to the boiling, heating cycles with
ramp up power level and ramp down power levels may show thermal hysteresis,
especially in the presence of non-condensable gases (Piasecka et al., 2004; Mameli
et al., 2014).

4. Flow Patterns
The visualization of flow patterns in a PHP is essential to understand the internal heat
and mass transfer mechanisms. As in many two-phase flows (Khandekar et al., 2010;
Baldassari et al., 2013), there are different flow patterns, depending on a number
of variable. Details of the flow patterns and the underlying physics are described in
Chapter 2.
It is possible to define flow maps like that in Table 3, which is based on the
visualization of the flows in the adiabatic zone. The flow patterns are typically of
the following four types (see Fig. 6):

(i) Bubbly or dispersed flow

(ii) Slug flow (also called slug/plug flow)
(iii) Semi-annular flow
(iv) Annular flow

Table 3 is only an example of a convergence of the literature to some facts, such as:
the flow pattern is in a slug flow when the PHP operates at low power loads, while at
high power loads, the typical flow pattern changes into an annular flow (Xue et al.,
2017). The so-called oscillation and circulation motions (see Sec. 5) both may occur
for all the flow patterns; high power loads favorize the circulation with respect to
the oscillation motion for the vertical BHM.
For the analysis of flow patterns, it is common to have transparent inserts both
for visual and IR analyses, such as Pyrex, glass or sapphire. In some cases, the inserts
are in the evaporator and in the condenser sections. The material of such inserts is
characterized by a lower thermal conductivity and a thicker wall, with the result
that a significant temperature difference occurs between the inner and outer channel
wall. This may have an impact on the PHP operation and performance, and it is
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 11

Table 3. (a) Flow direction map for a closed-loop Pyrex capillary PHP in vertical BHM (4 turns,
di = 1.6 mm, ethanol). (b) Flow direction map for the same PHP (Liu et al., 2007).

Q(W )
FR 10 20 30 45 60 80 100 125

(a) 10% SA SA X
20% S SA SA X
30% S S SA SA SA A X
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40% S S SA SA SA A X
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50% S S S SA SA A A A
70% F S S S SA SA SA A
(b) 10% O O X
20% O O O X
30% O O O C C C X
40% O O C C C C X
50% O C C C C C C X
70% F C C C C C C C

Figure 6. Flow visualization in the adiabatic zone of a closed-loop Pyrex capillary PHP in vertical
BHM (4 turns, di = 1.6 mm, ethanol). It is possible to recognize different flow patterns, such as
bubbly flow, slug flow, semi-annular flow and annular flow (Liu et al., 2007).

a risk to consider in the experimental analysis. Nevertheless, Cui et al. (2014) have
found a close relationship between the flow characteristics obtained in visualization
experiments with the heat-transfer characteristics acquired from non-visualization
experiments.
A flat-plate PHP is generally a PHP where the channels have been engraved or
milled in a plate. This is an advantageous solution for embedding the PHP into a
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12 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

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Figure 7. Map of the flow patterns for a single turn closed-loop glass capillary PHP filled with water
(di = 4 mm, 0◦ Horizontal, 90◦ BHM vertical) (Saha et al., 2014).

breadboard and to use the PHP as a thermal spreader. Yang et al. (2009) presents an
experimental study on two flat-plate closed-loop PHPs made of aluminum (Ethanol,
PHP1: 66 parallel square channels with cross-section 1 × 1 mm2 , PHP2: 40 parallel
square channels with cross-section 2 × 2 mm2 ). PHP2 is operated at lower evapo-
rator temperatures. The two-phase pressure drop is markedly higher for PHP1 due
to the smaller channel diameter, and the performance is not improved by a higher
number of turns. Both PHPs work at all orientations with respect to gravity, even in
THM vertical orientation.
For a single-turn PHP, also called single-loop PHP, Saha et al. (2014) identified
the flow patterns in function of the inclination angle and the heat power load (Fig. 7).
Four regimes are present, and the main feature is that the dry-out mode occurs for
higher inclination angles with respect to the vertical direction for a given minimum
power. In horizontal position, the start-up power increases.
The internal flow in a PHP can be analyzed through the statistical data of the
temperature and pressure signals. With a Fourier analysis, it is hardly possible
to identify a typical frequency, while investigation of the chaotic behavior, using
auto-correlation functions and Kolmogorov entropy, may give insights into different
operation modes (Song et al., 2009). Large correlation dimensions and Kolmogorov
entropies (i.e., a larger degree of chaoticity) correspond to small thermal resistances
and better thermal performance.

4.1. Liquid slug and vapor plug velocity

The liquid and vapor dynamics inside the PHP are very important to determine
both the flow patterns and the operation limit of the PHP. The dynamic limit of
the capillary diameter expressed in Eq. (2) needs an evaluation of the liquid slug
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 13

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Figure 8. Bubble break up and expansion for two wall superheat in a capillary tube; fluid: n-pentane
(Lips et al., 2010).

velocity. The average liquid slug velocity depends on the flow patterns and the
operation mode. In slug flows, the bubble velocity can range between 0.1 m/s and
1 m/s for most of the analyzed conditions, while in annular flows the velocity is
usually higher and ranges from 0.4 m/s to 1.5 m/s (Xue et al., 2005, 2017). These
velocities are typical also for flat-plate PHP (Borgmeyer et al., 2007).
The velocity limit for the slug flow pattern is due to the break up of bubbles,
as experiments in a single capillary tubes demonstrate (Lips et al., 2010). Figure 8
shows a visualization of the flow in a capillary tube and the bubble break up and
expansion for two wall superheats (Lips et al., 2010).

5. PHP Heat Transfer Characteristics

The complex phenomena of evaporation and condensation and the dynamics of the
internal flows make it difficult to obtain a clear representation of the heat transfer
characteristics of a PHP. The principal PHP characteristics analyzed in the scientific
literature are:
(i) flow dynamics, i.e., the different flow regimes, the mechanism of vapor
generation, boiling nucleation, bubble velocity and acceleration, bubble and
liquid slug break up, flow direction (oscillation, small pulsations, circulation,
stop over),
(ii) thermal performance, i.e., the measurement of temperature in different loca-
tions of the evaporator, the condenser and the adiabatic sections,
(iii) heat transfer analysis, i.e., the temperature and pressure fluctuations, degassing
level, volume fraction, vapor quality, sensible versus latent heat.
For most of the experimental investigations, a sub-division of the PHP operation
regimes or modes is considered as the following:
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14 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

I. Pure conduction: Before the start-up, increasing the power load causes an
increase of the evaporator temperature, but there is no detectable fluctuation
both at the evaporator and at the condenser. The pressure at the condenser is
stable and corresponds to the saturation temperature. Visually, there is no motion
of bubbles and liquid slugs. During a power-down event, this phase is called
complete de-activation.
II. Pulsation: Both the evaporator and the condenser do not present temperature
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fluctuations, but some pressure fluctuation can be measured, together with the
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visualization of small-amplitude pulses of the bubbles. This is a regime which

may be obtained in microgravity or in the presence of external vibrations.
III. Start-up: Temperature oscillations are recognizable at least in one channel.
IV. Intermittent flow: After the start-up, the temperatures at the evaporator do not
stabilize and show stop-overs with rapid increases and strong oscillations.
V. Full activation: All the temperatures at the evaporator zone abruptly decrease
while the pressure signal exhibits an intense change. A vigorous two-phase flow
motion can be observed through the transparent section, if any. This motion may
have two characteristics:
– Oscillation: the fluid changes direction with a noticeable amplitude.
– Circulation: the fluid flows in a preferential direction.
VI. Dry out: The evaporator temperatures are rapidly increasing.
Figure 9 shows a typical representation of the PHP mode in terms of temperature
oscillations at different powers. Cui et al. (2014) ran experiments on a closed-loop
copper capillary PHP, with 5 turns, di = 2 mm, using and four different working
fluids: deionized water, methanol, ethanol, and acetone. Up to 15 W the PHP does
not activate, even if it is not possible to state whether there is a pulsation mode, at

Figure 9. Operation modes for a closed-loop copper capillary PHP, with 5 turns, di = 2 mm, filled
at 62% with water (T8 at the evaporator, T3 at the condenser) (Cui et al., 2014).
April 3, 2018 18:40 Encyclopedia of Two-Phase Heat Transfer and Flow IV (Vol. 1) - 9.75in x 6.5in b3084-v1-ch01 page 15

Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 15

least for the highest power load. At 20 W starts-up appears, but until a power of 50 W
the PHP mode is still intermittent, and only at 65 W a full activation is present. There
is no dry out until 100 W, even if a spike for the evaporator temperatures signals that
a temporary dry out occurs.
For each operation regime, the flow inside the PHP presents different patterns
(see Sec. 4). As in standard two-phase flows, a slug flow, a semi-annular or an annular
flow can appear, together with bubbly flows in case of bubble break up or in larger
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channels. Looking at the frequency spectrum, some authors further distinguished

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cases of fully activated PHP with oscillation, oscillation with circulation and flow
reversals and stable circulation (Spinato et al., 2015). Depending on patterns and
PHP operation regimes, the PHP performance varies. Qu et al. (2007) reported that
the oscillation and circulation of slug flow depends on the input heat.
The annular flow, i.e., vapor bubbles surrounded by a liquid film, when it is
associated to a circulation of the flow results in a high heat transfer performance
(Xue et al., 2017).
In such respect, three heat transfer processes can be considered to analyze the
PHP thermal performance:
(a) the latent heat due to vapor condensation and liquid film evaporation,
(b) the enhanced sensible heat transfer induced by oscillating motion of the liquid
slugs,
(c) the external convection heat transfer at the condenser side (Kato et al., 2013).
Generally the experimental measurements show that when power input
increases, the slug displacement, velocity and oscillation frequency also increase
(Borgmeyer et al., 2007). A circulatory flow was found to be desirable because the
circulation of the working fluid enhances the capability for the working fluid to
transport heat from the evaporation zone to the condensation zone. The oscillation
regime can change to the circulation regime when power load is increased (Spinato
et al., 2015), while a larger fill ratio also promotes the circulatory flow in a PHP.
Khandekar et al. (2009) noted that the device exhibits the best performance when
the flow is circulating and parallel in alternate channels, and the worst performance
pertains to the oscillating flow. Mameli et al. (2014) also found out that the device
reaches a stable performance when the dominant flow is of circulating type. One
should however note that the circulation regime is generally attainable for low turn
number in BHM only.
A feature confirmed in different experiments (see, for example, Karthikeyan
et al., 2014; Khandekar et al., 2009) is the occurrence in most of the PHPs
of a peculiar operation regime whereby multiple pseudo-steady states could be
observed. When allowed to run for a sufficiently long time, the PHP dynamics can
spontaneously go from one “steady-state” to another, without a change in the thermal
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16 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

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Figure 10. Pseudo-state operation regimes of a fully activated closed-loop copper capillary PHP
(8 turns di = 2 mm). The power load was kept for 11 h at 200 W (a) and 275 W (b) (Karthikeyan et al.,
2014).

boundary conditions. Figure 10 shows the jump of the operation regimes of a fully
activated closed-loop copper capillary PHP (8 turns, di = 2mm) from oscillatory to
circulatory behavior and vice versa, after about 4 h of continuous operation.
As compared to other kinds of heat pipes, the PHP also has a variable thermal
conductivity with respect to the power load. The higher the heating power, the lower
the thermal resistance of the device. The thermal resistance depends on many factors,
but commonly the most important parameters are the inclination with respect to the
gravity (examples in Fig. 11 for a capillary open-loop flat-plate PHP and Fig. 12
for a closed-endloop flat-plate PHP), working fluid, FR, evaporator length and inner
diameter (Fig. 13).
The thermal resistance decreases with the dimension of the inner diameter, i.e.,
for thermal performance on ground, it is better to design a PHP with the maximum
capillary diameter for the highest design temperature. Above a given diameter
threshold, the performance is decreases, as it may be noticed while comparing,
Fig. 13 for water (a) and ethanol (b). There is an optimum FR which is usually
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 17

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Figure 11. Thermal resistance versus heat power for a closed-end loop flat-plate PHP with various
inclinations (di = 1.2 mm, Ni = 40) (Lips et al., 2010).

Figure 12. Thermal resistance versus heat power for a BHM flat-plate PHP with various inclinations
(90◦ is for the vertical position) (Chein et al., 2012).

between 40% and 60%, and a larger evaporator length may contribute to a decrease
of the thermal resistance. A standard Flat PHP has a keq of the order of 5 kW/mK
and higher.
The inclination of the PHP affects the thermal resistance (see Sec. 6.4) and in
general, gravity acceleration in BHM improves the PHP performance. A PHP can
still work in THM conditions, even if with lower performance (Thongdaeng et al.,
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18 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

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Figure 13. Thermal resistance of a closed-loop capillary copper PHP. (a) and (b) refer to thermal
performance with (a) water and (b) ethanol at different inner diameters (FR = 50%, Le = 5 cm).
(c) and (d) refer to thermal performance at FR = 40% (c) and 50% (d) with evaporator lengths from
3 to 7 cm (di = 2 mm) (Qu et al., 2013).

2016). An increasing number of turns helps the PHP operation in horizontal and
even at THM position for high power loads (Fig. 11), but the dry-out power level
can be decreased for small inclinations (Fig. 14).

5.1. PHP start-up characteristics

PHP start-up mode is linked to small superheat values for the onset of nucleate
boiling (ONB) (Taft et al., 2012). The ONB is influenced by the surface properties
and the fluid characteristics. The working fluid properties, such as latent heat of
vaporization, surface tension and density, play a significant role in the PHP start-
up. Large latent heat of vaporization and vapor density, together with low surface
tension and liquid density are required for low values of superheat. On one side,
increasing the surface hydrophobicity can lower the ONB temperature, together with
a rough surface, or the use of surface cavities. On the contrary, a hydrophobic surface
can decrease the critical heat flux (CHF) value, and therefore it can anticipate the
dry-out mode at lower power loads. Considering the working fluid properties, Riehl
(2004) observed that the pulsation mode and the flow oscillations are more important
and regular with methanol rather than water. The low latent heat of the methanol
promotes nucleation and, as a consequence, instabilities of the fluid flow. The
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 19

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Figure 14. Influence of the inclination angle on a closed-loop copper capillary PHP (FC72, 31 turns,
di = 1.1 mm) (Mameli et al., 2014).

latent heat is connected to the Clausius–Clapeyron equation, i.e., to the first partial
derivative of the pressure with respect to the temperature at saturation condition:

∂ P 
h lv = T (v v − vl )
∂ T sat
where v v and vl are the specific volume for the vapor and liquid phase, respectively.
Considering the pressure drop (liquid side) and the necessity to have an initial local
high pressure for the start-up, ∂ P/∂ T |sat and the liquid dynamic viscosity μl are
important parameters for the start-up mode (Liu et al., 2013). The higher the μl and
the smaller the ∂ P/∂ T |sat , the slower the working fluid flows at the start-up (Han
et al., 2014).
The start-up condition is also linked to the filing ratio. In a comprehensive
analysis of the influencing parameter on the start-up mode, Liu et al. (2013) indicated
that the optimal FR for the start-up mode of a closed-loop copper capillary PHP
(di = 2.6 mm) is about 41% for water, 52% for ethanol and falls within the range
from 35% to 41% for methanol.
The use of liquid mixtures and surfactants can decrease the power load for
the start-up, even if the use of pure fluids, with low latent heat, low viscosity and
low surface tension, such as acetone, is usually the best solution for improving
the reactivity of the PHP at low power loads. Figure 15 shows the start-up mode
occurrence for a closed-loop copper capillary PHP with 9 turns, di = 2 mm, at BHM,
with different fluids at FR = 50% (Patel et al., 2017). The PHP failed to start-
up below 20 W for all working fluids. The pulsations onset is observed at 20.5 W
for acetone and methanol, 40.5 W for ethanol and 50.3 W for water. In case of
binary mixtures, start-up occurs at 29.6, 40.5 and 50.3 W for water–acetone, water–
methanol and water-ethanol, respectively. Using surfactant solutions, start-up heat
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20 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

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Figure 15. Start-up mode for a closed-loop copper capillary PHP with 9 turns di = 2 mm, at BHM,
with different fluids at FR = 50% (Patel et al., 2017).

input decrease from 50.3 to 40.5 W when the concentration increases from 30 PPM
to 45 PPM, remaining stable for a further increase of surfactants concentration (Patel
et al., 2017).
Finally, the gravity (in BHM) improves the stability of the presence of the
intermittent flow mode at the start-up.

5.2. Circulation mode

As already indicated, in order to obtain a high PHP performance, it is probably
convenient to operate the PHP in circulation regime. In such sense, as also indicated
by Table 3(b), there is a minimum power load necessary for the flow circulation.
The minimum power mainly depends on the FR, channel inner diameter and
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 21

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Figure 16. The effect of channel diameter and asymmetry in the channel on the minimum power
load to obtain a circulatory motion (closed-loop glass capillary PHP, single turn, filled with ethanol
at FR = 50%, with a dual diameter configuration) (Kwon et al., 2014).

inclination (Kwon et al., 2014). A very important aspect is that any asymmetry in
the characteristics of the channels (diameter, wettability, presence of an obstruction,
check valves) increases the probability of circulation.
Figure 16 shows that a varying inner diameter size may decrease the minimum
power to establish the oscillation mode up to 50% and that this effect is more
pronounced for large diameters (Kwon et al., 2014).
The dependency of the minimum power load on the different parameters is lower
for a large number of turns.
Using a so-called time-strip image processing technique, Spinato et al. (2015)
suggest that the transition from an oscillation to circulation regime with increasing
heat load is caused by bubble nucleation and/or the rapid bubble growth due to
evaporation. This results from liquid accumulation in the evaporator U-turn, where
nucleation and growth of bubbles produce slug oscillation. It is unfortunately difficult
to obtain the circulation mode in a PHP with a high number turns (i.e., exhibiting the
best performance at oscillations) without special means like check-valves, that on
the other hand increase the hydraulic resistance and lead generally to higher start-up
thresholds.

5.3. Dry-out heat load

One of the most compelling issues for the heat transfer performance of a PHP is
the maximum sustainable heat load. Above a given power the PHP starts to dry out,
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22 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

causing a rapid increase of the evaporator temperature. Different correlations in the

literature propose a qualitative indication of the maximum heat flux, even if their
accuracy is low (Sakulchangsatjatai et al., 2016), or they are too specific for a given
kind of PHP (Shafii et al., 2010). Such correlations are based on the Kutateladze
number:
q
Ku = [σ g(ρl − ρv )]0.25
h fg ρv0.5
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where h fg is the latent heat and q is the heat flux. The dominating dimensionless
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parameters on the heat transfer characteristics at horizontal heat mode are Di /L e ,

Jakob number and Bond number, while an additional dimensionless parameter
represents flooding phenomenon for the vertical mode:

1 + (ρv /ρl )0.25

Katpradit et al. (2005) proposed the following correlations for the critical Ku number
for the horizontal and vertical positions, respectively:
 1.127      −1.32
Di C pT 1.417 g(ρl − ρv ) 0.5
Ku0 = 53680 × × × Di
Le h fg σ

and
       −0.59
Dl 0.92 C pT −0.212 g(ρl − ρv ) 0.5
Ku90 = 0.0002 × × × Di
Le h fg σ
 13.06
ρe 0.25
× 1+
ρl

For a given working fluid, the CHF increases when decreasing the evaporator
length and increasing the number of turns. The working fluid is important, whereas
a higher vaporization latent heat increases the ability to support higher fluxes
(Fig. 17).
At present, it is still unclear which phenomenon triggers the PHP dry out. Since
the CHF depends strongly on the flow velocity, the dry out can be triggered by the
stop over of oscillations.

6. Influencing Parameters
The number of parameters influencing a PHP is huge, and their influence is
not completely understood. Table 1 presents a schematic representation of many
influencing parameters. In the following section, the most updated literature is
reviewed to describe the role of some of the parameters, such as the working fluid
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 23

Turn=5 Turn=10 Turn=15

30000

25000

20000
qc (W/m2)

15000

10000
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Ethanol

Water
R123

5000
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0
0 0.5x103 1.0x103 1.5x103 2.0x103 2.5x103
Latent heat (kJ/kg)

Figure 17. Relationship between the dry-out heat flux and the fluid latent heat for different number
of turns at vertical position (L e = 50 mm). The PHP is made by an open-loop copper capillary tube
(Katpradit et al., 2005).

physical properties, the FR, the wall superheating, the orientation, the geometry and
even the presence of dissolved gas.
One useful observation is that, even if the PHP operational modes are linked to
the capillarity effects, the gravity certainly affects the PHP efficiency. Although the
inner diameter of the channels is well within the specific limit (Eqs. (1) and (2)),
bubble dynamics is affected by the buoyancy. Generally, a critical number of turns
is required to make horizontal operation possible and to bridge the performance gap
between vertical and horizontal operation.

6.1. Working fluids

As already indicated, all the parameters influencing the capillary process are
important, such as surface tension, difference between the liquid and vapor densities,
and liquid viscosity. Since the velocity of the slugs is important (see Eq. (2)), and it is
linked to the pressure difference along the channels and between the condenser and
the evaporator side, the liquid density plays a role, together with thermophysical
properties such as latent heat, specific heat, thermal conductivity and diffusivity.
Section 12 gives some of the useful properties for the fluids commonly used in PHP.
A high boiling point temperature and a high latent heat require higher power
loads for the phase change, which can be important when the PHP is intended to
dissipate high heat fluxes at high temperatures. On the other hand, a high boiling
point temperature and a high latent heat inhibit the start-up and the oscillation mode.
A high ∂ P/∂ T |sat offers a greater driving force for fluid motion. For a given flow
rate between the condenser and evaporator, a relatively high specific heat results
in an improved sensible heat transfer because the working fluid transports a larger
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24 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

energy. Large viscosities always act to damp the oscillations and thus hinder the PHP
operation. Considering the full activation mode, an ideal working fluid will have a
large partial derivative of the saturation pressure with respect to temperature, high
latent heat, a low dynamic viscosity and liquid density, a high thermal conductivity,
and a high specific heat.
The different PHP operation modes are affected by the working fluids (Taft et al.,
2012; Xue et al., 2017). For example, for a flat-plate PHP, when the heat pipe was
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charged with water, for a given low power, no oscillating motion is observed, while
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with ethanol at the same power, the PHP runs with larger amplitudes and velocities
(Borgmeyer et al., 2007). The thermal resistance of a closed-loop copper capillary
PHP (di = 2 and 2.4 mm) filled with water was lower than with ethanol, whereas
ethanol was more beneficial to improve the thermal performance of a PHP with a
smaller diameter di = 1.2 mm (Qu et al., 2013; Han et al., 2014) determined that, for
the same FR, the PHP charged with a working fluid with lower boiling point and lower
latent heat of vaporization, for example, acetone, showed smaller dry-out powers.

6.1.1. Liquid mixtures

Mixtures of liquids have been extensively used in PHP, in order to find a compromise
between the start-up mode conditions and the thermal performance at high power
loads. At large FRs, and high heat input, the thermal performances of a PHP charged
with mixtures are generally not as good as that with pure water, while for low
and medium FR, usually the mixtures show better performance (Pachghare et al.,
2013, 2014; Shi et al., 2016). Binary and even ternary fluids (Su et al., 2015) have
been proposed. Cui et al. (2016) presented an experimental analysis on the thermal
resistance characteristics of closed-loop PHP with methanol-based binary mixtures.
The working fluids were methanol mixed with deionized water, acetone and ethanol.
The volume mixing ratios used were 2:1, 4:1 and 7:1, and the heating power ranged
from 10 to 100 W with FRs of 45%, 62%, 70% and 90%. The results showed that at
low FR (FR = 45%), adding water to methanol prevent dry out at high power loads.
When ethanol was added to methanol, the PHP thermal resistance was between the
one with pure methanol and ethanol; when acetone was added, the thermal resistance
was slightly lower than that with pure methanol and acetone. At higher FRs (62%,
70%, 90%), the thermal resistance values were not very different with respect to
pure fluids. In general, at low FRs, most of the binary mixtures have higher dry-out
power loads (Han et al., 2016).

6.1.2. Nanofluids
Since an increment of the liquid thermal conductivity, together with a decrease of
the surface tension, can be beneficial for the PHP performance, many studies regard
the use of nanofluids.
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 25

Ma et al. (2006) and Wilson et al. (2006) found that the thermal conductivity for a
diamond-based nanofluid was 1.0 W/mK compared with the thermal conductivity of
0.6 W/mK for bi-distilled water. The increment of thermal resistance for a closed-
loop copper capillary PHP with 12 turns, di = 2.6 mm, FR = 50% is shown in
Fig. 8 (Wilson et al., 2006; Park et al., 2007) were among the first to use nanofluids,
exploring the effect of 1.0 vol% CuNi nanoparticles in water. The results show a
slight improvement of the performance, and that the FR influences the effect of the
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nanofluids on the heat transport capability. Lin et al. (2008) investigated the effect of
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silver nanofluid on PHP thermal performance, in particular they compared pure water
with a 20 nm silver nanofluid at different concentration (100 and 450 ppm in water
solution). The best efficiency is achieved with 100 ppm, while with the 450 ppm
concentration the PHP operates worse than with pure water, probably due to the
higher fluid viscosity. Qu et al. (2009) performed an experimental investigation
on the thermal performance of a PHP charged with water and spherical Al2 O3
particles of 56 nm in diameter. The interesting output was that the major reason
for the enhanced thermal performance was the change of surface condition at the
evaporator due to nanoparticle settlement. Ji et al. (2011) experimentally investigated
the particle shape effect on the heat transfer performance of a PHP. Platelet
(9 nm), blade (60 nm), cylinder (80 nm), and brick (40 nm) were studied, and the
maximum heat transport capability was reached by means of cylinder-like alumina
nanoparticles.
Bhuwakietkumjohn et al. (2015) used a mixture of ethanol with silver nano-
particles at 0.5wt.%, in a closed-loop capillary PHP with FR = 50%. They found an
increase of the performance with respect to the pure fluid. Other studies are from
Goshayeshi et al. (2013, 2016a, 2016b, 2017), using Fe3 O4 in water and γ Fe2 O3 in
kerosene, Halimi et al. (2017) with copper nanoparticles, Hung et al. (2013) with
different concentrations of Al2 O3 /water nanofluids. Investigations about the use of
ferrofluids have been carried out by Mohammadi et al. (2012, 2014), Taslimifar et al.
(2013) and Nine et al. (2014). Other experimental investigations with nanofluids are
from Zhang (2004), Wilson et al. (2006), Ma et al. (2006), Riehl (2007), Jamshidi
et al. (2009), Kang et al. (2009), Qu et al. (2010, 2011), Shafahi et al. (2010),
Goshayeshi et al. (2013), Hung et al. (2013), Tanshen et al. (2013) and Karthikeyan
et al. (2014).
In general, the use of nanofluids leads to an increase of the PHP performance and
a decrease of the thermal resistance. Such decrement of the thermal resistance is more
important at low power inputs (Fig. 18), and on average it is evaluated to be between
−10% and −40%, depending on the used nanoparticles. It is not clear if the reason
for such an increment in the performance is due to the higher thermal conductivity of
the nanofluids or to a modification of the internal wall surface. Moreover, since the
nanofluids may have a larger viscosity, a high mass concentration of particles leads to
a decrease of the performance. Further, thermal-to-electrical energy conversion was
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26 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

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Figure 18. Thermal resistance of a single-loop copper capillary PHP with copper-based nanofluid at
different weight concentration (1 turn, di = 2.4 mm, FR = 60%) (Nine et al., 2014).

demonstrated using a PHP filled with ferrofluid and equipped with an annular-type
solenoid (Monroe et al., 2015).
The long-term stability and the agglomeration of nanoparticles in PHP is a
critical issue. It is well known in two-phase thermal systems (Solangi et al., 2015).
This issue is however not yet deeply analyzed.

6.1.3. Surfactants
Since surface tension is an important factor that influences the heat transfer
performance of a PHP and in particular its start-up, different studies have been
carried out with surfactants. Cai et al. (2016) used three concentration solutions
(0.001, 0.005 and 0.009 wt.%) of sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) in
deionized water. Surface tension was decreased by 42.2% after addition of 0.005%
SDBS, with negligible changes for the liquid specific heat, density and viscosity.
The experimental results indicated that SDBS can reduce the start-up time of the
PHP at low power loads, while it has a negligible effect on the start-up time under
high heating power loads.
Patel et al. (2017) found a clear effect of the addition of surfactant in water,
reducing the start-up heat flux compared to pure water (Fig. 19). Also for the surfac-
tants, there is an optimum concentration to optimize the PHP thermal performance.

6.1.4. Self-rewetting fluids

Self-rewetting fluids (SRFs) are mixtures with the property that, unlike common
liquids, above a given critical temperature, the surface tension increases with
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 27

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Figure 19. Effect of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) concentration in water on the thermal resistance
of a closed-loop copper capillary PHP (di = 2 mm, 9 turns, BHM) (Patel et al., 2017).

temperature instead of decreasing. After a second temperature threshold, the surface

tension again decreases as for a common liquid. The higher surface tension at a
higher temperature means that the liquid will be drawn by the Marangoni effect
toward a hotter place, in particular toward a dry channel wall in the evaporator
section (dry areas are always hotter). Thus, a dry-out event is expected to occur for a
larger heat flux, which can lead to a higher dry-out threshold, which is beneficial for
PHP. This effect was studied for wicked heat pipes, but some investigation has been
carried out also for PHP. Fumoto et al. (2008, 2009a, 2009b, 2010) reported on the
enhancement of heat transport using an SRF as a working fluid in closed-loop PHP.
In such experiments, butanol or pentanol were added to water at a concentration of
less than 1 wt.% to produce an SRF. In an experiment with a flat-plate aluminum
PHP, the SRF improved the heat transfer characteristics in the evaporator section,
resulting in lower thermal resistance of the heat pipe compared to the pure water-
filled PHP. For the pentanol aqueous solution, the start-up threshold was lower than
that for both butanol aqueous solution and pure water.
Hu et al. (2014) analyzed the heat transfer enhancement of micro-PHP using
an SRF. The results show that the SRFs spontaneously wet the hotter area and
improve the flow of the working fluid. Compared with the pure water, the SRWF
exhibits much better thermal performance: SRFs can decrease the thermal resistance
and extend the effective operation range of the micro-PHP (closed loop, copper,
di = 0.4, 0.8, 1.3 mm, 4 turns).
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28 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

Fumoto et al. (2016) built a flat-plate aluminum PHP with a square channel
cross-section. SRF was made by adding ethanol and butanol to water at a
concentration less than 1 wt.% Using an SRF in PHPs was found to be effective
in improving their heat transport capability (see Fumoto et al., 2016, Fig. 6).
Su et al. (2016) prepared self-rewetting nanofluids by mixing SRFs and
nanofluids. The nanofluid is a graphene oxide dispersion solution, while the self-
rewetting fluid is an n-butanol alcohol aqueous solution. The PHP is fabricated from
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a straight copper tube (di = 2 mm, FR = 50%, vertical BHM). The experimental
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results show an optimum constituent concentration of the nanoparticles and the

n-butanol for the self-rewetting nanofluid. The maximum conductance of the self-
rewetting nanofluid is about 16% higher than that obtained using only the SRF and
about 12% higher than that of the nanofluid.

6.2. Filling ratio

The FR is an important parameter for a PHP to achieve the best performance,
operation regimes and lowest thermal resistance. Figure 20 offers a very good
example of the influence of the FR on the thermal resistance. Generally, a large FR

Figure 20. Effect of the FR and working fluid properties on the thermal resistance of a closed-loop
copper capillary (5 turns, BHM, di = 2 mm) (Han et al., 2014).
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 29

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Figure 21. Effect of the FR and orientation on the thermal resistance of a closed-loop copper capillary
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(FC72, 31 turns, di = 1.1 mm) (Mameli et al., 2014).

(50% < FR < 70%) is preferable for high heat fluxes and very long PHP channels
(Arab et al., 2012). Above FR = 70%, the PHP performance decreases for most
of the cases in literature, as for FR < 30% (Khandekar et al., 2003). At very high
FR, the bubbles tend to limit the two-phase fluid motion (Khandekar et al., 2003).
The role of gravity is important, and multi-turn PHPs are still working in horizontal
position with low-medium FR (Fig. 21). A suitable FR value for the PHP design is
equal to 50% for most of the PHP geometries and working fluids.

6.3. Bubble generation

Since the PHP behavior is connected with ONB, the wall superheat critically
influences the bubble generation. A study of a horizontal single glass capillary
(di = 2.4 mm) with imposed wall superheating (Lips et al., 2010) indicated that for
a 15 K superheat, nucleation takes place at the advancing meniscus, and the bubbles
detach quickly from the wall. Their diameter remains lower than the tube diameter
and the bubbles follow the liquid slug motion. For 35 K superheat, nucleation occurs
again at the edge of the advancing meniscus, but also in the middle of the liquid
slug. These bubbles merge, thus creating a new vapor plug. Its intense expansion can
deform the receding meniscus. The liquid slug is thus broken up into several smaller
slugs. Finally, the bubble expansion can be so strong to force the remaining liquid
slug to flow against the overall pressure head. This process has been also observed
by Senjaya and Inoue (2013). The conclusion is that a lower heat input leads to low
wall superheating, and only small bubbles are generated by nucleation. If the PHP
channels are oriented vertically, the bubbles are likely to carry up some liquid with
them (Khandekar et al., 2003). At high heat flux, the heat transfer is governed by
thin-film evaporation, which is less sensitive to orientation.

6.4. Orientation and gravity

Gravity is playing a fundamental role for PHPs. The importance of the effect of
orientation depends on many factors, such as the working fluid (Riehl, 2004), the heat
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30 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

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Figure 22. Thermal resistance of a flat-plate PHP in function of the applied heat loads for horizontal
and vertical (BHM) orientation (copper plate 120 mm × 200 mm, machined with a rectangular shaped
groove, hydraulic di = 1.65 mm, 12 turns, FC72 at FR = 50%) (Ayel et al., 2015).

Figure 23. Influence of the heat power load on the thermal resistance for different inclination angles
(closed-loop copper capillary PHP, FC72, 31 turns, di = 1.1 mm, BHM, FR = 70%) (Mameli et al.,
2014).

power load (Xue et al., 2017) and the number of turns (Charoensawan et al., 2003).
For low surface tension fluids, the role of PHP inclination on thermal resistance
is more important than for water (Jahan et al., 2013). The gravity strongly affects
the PHP start-up, while the orientation appears to have a higher effect on PHP
performance for high power loads (Mameli et al., 2014; Ayel et al., 2015) (Fig. 22).
Such a gravity effect decreases rapidly as the flow pattern of PHP changes into
annular flow (Xue et al., 2017).
It is interesting to note the fact that a small inclination from the horizontal
position already helps to increase the PHP performance (Mameli et al., 2014). In
Fig. 23, the thermal resistance of a closed-loop copper capillary PHP (FC72, 31 turns,
di = 1.1 mm, FR = 70%) shows that in horizontal position the PHP activates at
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 31

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Figure 24. Effect of edge orientation of an open-loop copper flat-plate PHP (ethanol, di = 2 mm,
FR = 50%) (Manno et al., 2015).

higher heat power loads and always shows higher thermal resistance. Already at
15◦ inclination in BHM, the PHP has a very good thermal behavior, similar to all
the higher inclinations. In the vertical orientation, the PHP displays a maximum
performance for a small interval of heat loads before the dry out occurs. This agrees
with the results of other studies other studies (Arab et al., 2012), where the best
performance over a large interval of power loads was not obtained for the vertical
position, but for an angle of 75◦ .
A standard capillary or flat-plate PHP has very poor performance in top heat
mode. Bhuwakietkumjohn et al. (2015) investigated the heat-transfer characteristics
of a top heat mode closed-loop oscillating heat pipe (copper, water, 40 turns, di =
2.06 mm) filled with water and ethanol with a check valve. The PHP was able to
activate, and the maximum heat flux is reached with ethanol and FR = 80%.
Finally, a flat PHP may be laid down on its side so some of its branches are
higher than others (edge orientation). Figure 24 shows the pitch tests carried out
by Manno et al. (2015) for automotive applications. Results indicate that the edge
position still allows reaching good performances in terms of start-up heat input,
thermal resistance and operation stability.

6.5. PHP geometry

The PHP geometrical parameters impact the PHP performance in a complex way.
Parameters such as the PHP surface, the overall length of the channel, number of
turns, evaporation section length, adiabatic section length, condenser section length
and turn radius of the channel have rather intricate and not well-understood effects
on the PHP behavior. Especially, particular 3D designs may be very interesting
(Hathaway et al., 2012; Sriudom et al., 2015; Qu et al., 2017; Ibrahim et al., 2017),
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32 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

but the lack of a design tool makes the implementation of such solutions a trial and
error procedure.
Nevertheless, there are general rules of thumb which can be used. As for other
heat pipes, the condenser area should be larger than the evaporator area to ensure
normal operating conditions, especially for high heat loads at the evaporator. Any
asymmetry in the design (dual-diameter channels, check valves, non-uniform heat-
ing and so on) can generate circulation of the flow during the full activation mode, i.e.,
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enhancing the PHP performance. For example, Kwon et al. (2014) proved that a dual
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diameter causes a circulating flow to start at lower power loads. The PHP thermal
resistance was reduced by as much as 45%. The higher the number of turns, the more
stable the PHP operation is. Furthermore, the thermal resistance decreases with a
number of turns. The length of channels in the adiabatic and condenser sections is
important in BHM vertical orientation because of buoyancy, especially for low heat
loads; it affects the start-up power level. The choice of the evaporator or condenser
lengths is important to optimize the PHP performance, since the maximum heat flux
will vary. The presence of optimal evaporator lengths were confirmed by Qu et al.
(2013) for a closed-loop capillary PHP. This optimal evaporator length depends on
the channel diameter, working fluid, FR, and heating power input. The turn radius
affects the pressure drop in PHP; small turn radius also affects the start-up power
level. More effects are addressed in Sec. 7 about the PHP design.

6.6. Non-condensable gases

The initial vacuum level and the degassing of the working fluids is playing a major
and unfortunately still neglected role in the PHP performance and thermo-hydraulic
behavior. As for standard heat pipes, the effect of non-condensable gas on saturation
pressure and therefore on the heat pipe characteristics is essential. It has been clearly
shown that, at low vapor pressures, non-condensable gas considerably increases the
system pressure and effective saturation temperature, thus sub-cooling the system
(Taft et al., 2012), Quoting Taft et al. (2012), “few researchers document the extent
to which they pull a vacuum on their PHP before filling, and even fewer go through
a rigorous degassing of the working fluid before fill.” Riehl (2004) demonstrated
that the plug flow dynamics is directly dependent on the amount of non-condensable
gas in the system.
Already O’Connor et al. (1996) showed that the effect of adding air to a system
is the increase of the degree of sub-cooling of the working fluid. As a consequence,
presence of non-condensable gas produces a rise in the steady-state operating
temperature, pressure and thermal resistance, even if it does not undermine the
PHP activation (Taft, 2013). Daimaru et al. (2015) in their Fig. 6 show the effect of
non-condensable gas on ethanol for the saturation temperature at a given pressure
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 33

and relative sub-cooling. The presence of 1 vol% non-condensable gas implies a

difference of 20 K when the ethanol is at 20◦ C and a very important sub-cooling
condition, inhibiting the nucleation and the bubble expansion.
The effects of non-condensable gas are clear in the different thermal behavior
and in the higher thermal resistance of the PHP is all the operative conditions.
(Daimaru et al., 2015) investigated the effects of argon (as a non-condensable gas)
on a closed-loop copper capillary PHP (ethanol, FR = 55%, 16 turns, di = 2 mm).
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They found that the PHP thermal resistance increases with the amount of non-
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condensable gas. In addition, the thermal performance rapidly deteriorated with a

large amount of non-condensable gas; the dry out occurred for a smaller power. The
amplitude of the temperature oscillations was deeply influenced by the presence of
non-condensable gas (see Daimaru et al., 2015, Fig. 11).
Usually, a vacuum level of at least 0.1 Pa before the filling is necessary to assure
good performance and experimental repeatability for most of the PHPs.

6.7. Channel surface wettability

When high surface tension fluids, such as water, are used as working fluid, the surface
wettability of the channel is very important, since the boiling nucleation is strongly
affected by the surface characteristics, and among the others, wettability. A change
of the surface wettability is also important for the stability of the liquid film in the
annular flow and has implications on the form of the menisci of the liquid slug. Few
authors have investigated the effect of wettability on the PHP performance (Ji et al.,
2012; Hao et al., 2014). Hao et al. (2014) ran experiments to investigate the effects of
wettability on the heat transfer performance and slug motion of a closed-loop PHP
(equilibrium contact angles from 0◦ to 141.5◦ ). Results confirm that the surface
wettability influences both the slug motion and thermal performance. The liquid
slug movements become stronger both for superhydrophilic and hydrophilic PHPs
as opposed to the standard copper PHP, while the global heat transfer performance
increases. The hydrophilic PHP shows a better start-up performance. On the contrary,
the thermal resistance for a 4-turns PHP with a hydrophobic coating is about two
times greater than that of copper reference above a given power load level. Therefore,
a good channel wettability and surface quality are necessary for the good operation
of PHP.

7. PHP Design Optimization

As already indicated, in order to increment the overall PHP performance, three goals
need to be considered (i) decreasing the start-up heat power level, (ii) extending the
range of heat load without dry out, (iii) decreasing the thermal resistance during
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34 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

Table 4. Qualitative estimation of the influence of different parameters on PHP performance.

Decreasing the Extending the range Decreasing the thermal

start-up heat of heat load resistance during the
power level without dry out full activation mode

Working Higher latent heat ↓↓ ↑↑ ↑↑

fluids Higher specific heat ↓ ↑↑ ↑
Higher thermal ↑ ↓ ↑
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conductivity
Lower surface tension ↑↑ — ↓
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Using a mixture ↑ ↓ ↑
Using nanofluids ↑ — ↑↑
Decreasing liquid ↑ — ↑
viscosity
PHP Larger inner diameter ↑↑ ↑↑ ↑
geometry Larger number of turns ↓ ↑ ↑↑
Increasing evaporator ↓ ↑↑ —
surface
Larger radius of turn ↑ — ↓
Inducing a circulation mode — ↑ ↑↑
Lower non-condensable gas ↑ ↓ ↑↑
concentration

the full activation mode. Table 4 discusses the possible actions to optimize the PHP
operation.
In particular, many theoretical and experimental research activities have treated
the fluid circulation enhancement. Liu et al. (2007) proved that as the flow path
geometry of a PHP becomes less symmetric, the likelihood of circulatory flow
increases. Two special configurations, one with alternately varying channel diameter,
the other equipped with a section of larger tube, were shown to be beneficial to sustain
a circulatory flow.

7.1. Inducing a circulation mode

A transition to the circulation mode increases PHP performance. The induction
of circulation can be achieved using check valves, different channel diameters,
connecting channels, using vibrations, changing the internal surface of the channels
and PHP heating in a non-uniform way.

7.1.1. Use of check valves

Check valves have already been introduced by Akachi (1990) in his first patent as
a way to avoid phase recoiling and promote fluid net circulation. Rittidech et al.
(2007) investigated for a closed-loop capillary PHP the optimum ratio between
number of turns and check valve diameter ratio, showing that the thermal resistance
decreases with an increase of check valve diameter ratio. Wannapakhe et al. (2009)
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 35

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Figure 25. (a) Two different kind of check valves, capillary barrier and ball valve. (b) Dependence
of the thermal resistance on the power load for the BHM vertical (0◦ ) and horizontal position (90◦ )
of a closed-loop copper capillary PHP (R152a, 20 turns, di = 1.25 mm, FR = 40%, BHM). Dotted
points show unstable regimes (Pastukhov et al., 2016).

and Bhuwakietkumjohn et al. (2010) coupled the use of valves with silver nanofluids,
but, even if phase recoiling, when all the vapor phase resides in the evaporator zone
and all the liquid phase fills the condenser, is less marked at low heat power loads,
the fluid circulation is damped by the local pressure drops introduced by the check
valves.
Pastukhov et al. (2016) investigated different PHP modifications, drawing a
conclusion that the creation of a directional circulation of a working fluid in a PHP
is an effective means of improving its heat transfer characteristics, but capillary
barriers used as check valves are ineffective, while ball valves promote a good
circulation of the working fluid (Fig. 25). In this last case, a more homogenous
distribution of the temperature for the heating zone occurs, together with a decrease
of the thermal resistance and sensitivity to the orientation. The dry-out power level
increases up to 14%.
Recently, Thompson et al. (2011) and Fairley et al. (2015) proposed the use of
a Tesla valve to improve the circulation in a closed-loop copper flat-plate PHP in
BHM (Fig. 26). Using neutron radiography, it was found that the implementation
of Tesla-type valves indeed promoted a circulatory flow. The increase in the so-
called diodicity is advantageous for PHP operation as the thermal resistance was
reduced by approximately 20%. Using a similar approach, de Vries et al. (2017)
designed a Tesla-type valve for a transparent single-loop BHM PHPs, proving that
the valves produce a diodicity, which lead to a difference in liquid slug velocity of
25%. A decrease of 14% in thermal resistance was also observed due to the addition
of the valves.

7.1.2. Varying the channel diameter

Holley et al. (2005) developed a numerical code for the analysis of a PHP with
a capillary wick and varying channel diameter. Results indicate that heat transfer
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36 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

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Figure 26. The configuration of the two closed-loop flat-plate PHPs without (a) and with (b) the
novel Tesla-type valves (Fairley et al., 2015).

can be enhanced when the diameter of the channel is varied along the channel
length, thereby providing increased range of heat load capability, less sensitivity
to gravity, and in some cases smaller temperature differential. Liu et al. (2007)
built two special configurations of a closed-loop Pyrex PHP, one with alternately
varying channel diameter, the other equipped with one section of thicker tube,
advantageous in establishing and maintaining reliable circulation of the working
fluid. The inner diameters of the two adjacent tubes were 2 and 1.6 mm, respectively.
For the second PHP, a thicker tube (di = 2 mm) was inserted vertically to connect
the right-side channels by two flexible silicon adaptors. The outer diameter of all the
PHPs was 8 mm. Comparing with the normal PHP with uniform diameter, the PHP
with alternate diameters revealed higher thermal performance, especially at low
heat loads, while the effect is less important at higher heat loads. The PHP with
the thicker tube did not show any difference in terms of thermal resistance with
respect the normal PHP. In general, a PHP with uniform channel is more sensitive
to inclination, especially when the inclination angle is small (Chien et al., 2012).
In horizontal orientation, PHPs with channels with alternate different diameters can
be started at lower heat input with respect to the ones with uniform diameter (Tseng
et al., 2014).

7.1.3. Interconnecting channels

The flow circulation in closed-loop flat-plate PHP can be achieved by using
interconnecting channels (Fig. 27) to decrease flow resistance in one direction
and increase the total heat transfer of fluid Ebrahimi et al. (2015). In order to
experimentally investigate the effects of the interconnecting channels, one aluminum
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 37

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Figure 27. Scheme of the interconnecting channels for a closed-loop flat-plate PHP (Ebrahimi et al.,
2015).

flat-plate PHP with interconnecting channels (hydraulic di = 2.33 mm, 12 turns)

and one without were charged with ethanol (FR = 35%, 50%, 65%, 80%). Results
demonstrated the higher performance of the PHP with interconnecting channels in a
wide range of heat inputs and FRs. It has been observed that the most efficient
performance occurred at FR = 65%. The best performance of interconnecting
channels occurred for low and moderate heat inputs.

7.1.4. Multiple heat sources

In many applications, the heating sources are not evenly distributed at the evaporator
side. Many hot spots can be present, for example, on the surface of a PHP. The
presence of multiple heat sources can contribute to create the asymmetry which
facilitates the circulation during the full activation mode. Kammuang-Lue et al.
(2014) showed that, for vertical closed-loop PHPs, the highest thermal performance
is achieved when heat sources are arranged in consecutive order ascending from
the lowest heat flux at the inlet of the evaporator section. For a horizontal PHP,
the highest thermal performance is achieved when the heat sources are arranged in
opposite order, that is, descending from the highest heat flux, since working fluid
oscillates without stopovers.
Mangini et al. (2017) tested a single-loop PHP, filled up with ethanol (di =
2 mm, FR = 60%) in bottom heated mode by varying the heat power level and
spatial distribution of the heaters. Results point out that for a single-turn PHP as well,
peculiar heating configurations stabilize the two-phase flow motion in a preferential
direction, thus improving the overall performance. The pressure measurements
recorded both in the heated and in the cooled sections highlight that the pressure
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38 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

evolution is strictly dependent on the observed flow pattern. When a slug flow is
observable through the transparent section between the two pressure transducers,
the difference of pressure reaches 1.5 kPa and the pressure oscillations exhibit a
lower frequency. On the contrary, when an annular flow is visible, the pressure
variations between the heated and the cooled sections are less than the slug flow
case, but with higher frequency. The pressure drop is simply calculated with the
difference between the pressure recorded in the heated and in the cooled sections.
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Nevertheless, as such measurements depend on the hydrostatic pressure, i.e., the

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local vapor quality, the saturation pressure at the evaporator and at the condenser,
the fluid momentum, and the friction losses, further analysis is needed to provide
quantitative data on the pressure components. A uniform distribution of multiple
heaters with the same heating power has no particular effect on the PHP thermal
performance (Hemadri et al., 2011).

7.1.5. Use of induced vibrations

Induced vibrations may increase the PHP performance. In a closed-loop copper
capillary PHP (water, di = 1 mm, 4 turns, FR = 60%), the thermal resistances were
reduced with the increase of the vibration frequencies from 0 to 30 Hz for almost all
experimental conditions. The induced stronger frequency was strongly effective to
change the boiling limit in the high heat rates and lower FRs. The results also revealed
the effects of the applied frequency to increase the condensation and boiling heat-
transfer coefficients (Alaei et al., 2014). On the contrary, an early study from Kiseev
et al. (1999) using a centrifuge showed that PHPs may be not sensitive to vibrations
(frequency from 0 to 16 kHz, amplitude from 0 to 7 mm). Zhao et al. (2013, 2015)
applied ultrasonic sound to the evaporating section of a PHP by using electrically
controlled piezoelectric ceramics. The ultrasonic sound is used to generate and main-
tain the oscillating motion, and thereby enhance heat transfer in pulsating and oscil-
lation modes. The experimental results showed that ultrasonic sound can affect the
oscillating motions and enhance the heat transfer performance. It was also found that
(i) heat transfer enhancement of the ultrasonic effect depends on the working fluid
and operating temperature (ii) the enhancement of the water PHP is higher than ace-
tone PHP for low temperatures, while when the operating temperature was increased
to 40◦ C, the enhancement of the water PHP was lower than the acetone PHP.

8. PHP in Different Gravity Environments

8.1. Microgravity experiments
Being a recent technology, few studies have been carried out to test PHPs in
microgravity conditions. The first experimental tests performed in microgravity
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 39

conditions were done by Kawaji (2003) and Gu et al. (2004, 2005). Two different
aluminum prototypes, one flat and one bended, of a flat-plate PHP were tested on
board of a Falcon 20 aircraft exposing the test rig to ±0.02 g in microgravity and
2.5 g in hyper-gravity. Both the prototypes had rectangular cross-section channels
with 1 mm of hydraulic diameter, charged with R-114. The devices were heated up
by means of electrical heaters, while the cooling section made use of the air fans.
Gu et al. (2004) in Figs. 3 and 4 of their paper show three different configurations:
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two vertical configurations in THM (A and B) and one in BHM (C). They concluded
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that under normal and hyper-gravity conditions, the orientation affected the PHP
performance: the bottom heated case (C) leads to smaller temperature difference
between the evaporator and the condenser, followed by the heating at the middle
(A) and, finally, the top heated case (B). In microgravity, the THM configurations
showed better operating and heat transport performance than when under normal or
hyper-gravity conditions.
Mameli et al. (2014) analyzed the thermal characteristics of a closed-loop copper
capillary PHP at different gravity levels (FC72, di = 1 mm, 16 turns, FR = 50%),
providing different heat loads from 40 to 100 W. When the device is positioned in
BHM, the temperatures during microgravity show an increasing trend, synonymous
of dry-out conditions. The dynamic response of a PHP in microgravity is similar
to that of a PHP tested on ground horizontally (Fig. 28), i.e., when the PHP has
been tilted from vertical to horizontal and again from horizontal up to the vertical
position (always in BHM), the temperature evolution for all the thermocouples is
the same as for the gravity change from 0 to 1 g and back to 0 g.
During the parabolic flights (acceleration periodic sequence: 1, 1.8, 0, 1.8g),
only the vertical operation is affected by the gravity field variation: hyper-gravity
slightly assists the flow motion, while during microgravity the PHP undergoes

Figure 28. Flight tests in vertical position (a) compared with ground dynamic tests (b). In red color
is the temperatures at the evaporator, while in blue is the condenser temperature. The green line
represents the ambient temperature and the gray line the gravity level with respect to the direction
evaporator–condenser (Mameli et al., 2014).
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40 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

sudden temperature increase in the evaporator zone. The subsequent hyper-gravity

phase is able to bring the PHP back to the previous thermal regime.
Ayel et al. (2015) tested different flat-plate PHPs with a transparent glass wall
glued on a milled copper block allowed an overall fluid flow visualization. The flat-
plate PHP (water, di = 2 mm, BHM) worked also during the microgravity phase,
showing a pulsation mode. Microgravity was generally accompanied by partial dry
out of the evaporator section: in BHM, the cooled fluid from the top (condenser)
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has more difficulty to return to the bottom (evaporator) after the sudden absence of
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gravity during the parabolic trajectory. In hyper-gravity and in normal gravity, the
gravity acceleration helped the liquid to reflow to the hot zone and rewet the channel.
The PHP thermal performance was thus better. The PHP works more efficiently
for ground tests in bottom heated vertical than in horizontal orientation. Pressure
fluctuations and thermal instabilities are greater in horizontal position, with stop-
and-start phases that decrease with increasing heat power. Qu et al. (2016) found that
because the PHP operates in the horizontal position on ground like in microgravity
condition, a larger tube diameter is required for PHP start-up under microgravity
environment.
Long-term microgravity can be tested on board satellites, while sub-orbital
rockets and flights can be used for microgravity period of few minutes. A closed-loop
flat-plate PHP with check valves was developed to be placed on a Small Demonstrate
Satellite (SDS-4) built by JAXA (Nakamura et al., 2013). The device, made of
stainless steel and charged with HFC-134a, was thermally characterized on ground
showing thermal conductivity 250–350 times higher than the wall material (Maeda
et al., 2011; Okamoto et al., 2014).
Recently, a novel concept of multi-evaporator closed-loop thermosyphon/PHP
was tested for different heating patterns (symmetrical and non-symmetrical) in
microgravity conditions (Mangini et al., 2017). Due to the large diameter, the system
is capillary only in microgravity conditions. It was found that a non-symmetrical
heating layout promotes a stable circulation of fluid in a preferential direction
more effectively than the symmetrical case. In microgravity conditions, the sudden
absence of the buoyancy force allows to activate a typical PHP oscillating slug/plug
flow (Mangini et al., 2017).

8.2. Hyper-gravity experiments

Kiseev et al. (1999) experimentally investigated the effects of accelerations and
vibrations on the performance of a non-looped stainless steel PHP making use of
a 4.5 m diameter centrifuge. The 23 turns device (di = 1.1 mm) was charged with
acetone and tested for inclinations of −90◦ (THM), 0◦ and +90◦ (BHM). The data
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 41

confirm that the acceleration influences the internal pressure and the corresponding
temperature trends: the PHP operated successfully by various accelerations and there
was an increase in the evaporator temperature passing from 6 to −12 g; dry out was
not observed.
Van Es et al. (2000) tested under hyper-gravity a flat-plate swinging PHP
with two different working fluids: acetone and ethanol. The device was heated
by powering dissipating elements and cooled with Peltier cells. The whole system
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has been placed on a rotating table with a radial distance to the rotational axis
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of approximately 50 cm. According to the authors, several different experiments

were performed, but only two of them are discussed: one with a stainless-steel
prototype using ethanol as working fluid; the other with an aluminum prototype
using acetone as working fluid. The experiments were started at normal gravity and
then the speed of the rotating table was increased until the dry out. The stainless
steel PHP showed an evaporator temperature increase after few minutes of spinning
at 4.4 g. On the other hand, the prototype charged with acetone performed better,
up to the maximum allowed by the centrifuge of 8.4 g. Unfortunately, the authors
did not report the actual orientation of the device on the rotational table (it can
be only guessed from the reported picture), thus further information can hardly be
extrapolated.
Thompson et al. (2011, 2015) investigated a miniature copper 3D flat-plate
PHP (acetone, di = 0.76 mm) from 0 g (horizontal position) to 12 g THM on a
spin-table centrifuge. The PHP thermal resistance remained near independent on
gravity and even slightly decreased at 10 g. Clearly, these findings prove that a 3D
device can operate in any orientation with respect to gravity and this demonstrate a
robust thermal performance as previously suggested by Charoensawan et al. (2003).
Mameli et al. (2014) tested a copper closed-loop PHP (FC72, 16 turns, di = 1.1 mm)
with standard 2D geometry in hyper-gravity with the Large Diameter Centrifuge at
ESA-ESTEC. The PHP was analyzed up to 20 g and up to 100 W (Fig. 29). The
PHP thermal response is strongly and rapidly affected by the variation of the gravity
field. Theoretically, for such fluid and internal diameter, in the horizontal orientation,
fluid stratification and the consequent thermal crisis should occur between 2 and 3 g.
Instead, experiments show that the device operation stops at different acceleration
levels depending also on the heat input power level and on the heating/gravity
history. The vertical PHP thermal performance is slightly enhanced by the lower
hyper-gravity levels (up to 3 g at 50 W, up to 4 g at 70 W and up to 6 g at 100 W).
Two thermal crisis affect the PHP behavior in the vertical position: if the fluid
pumping pressure resulting from the heating power competes with the acceleration
forces, the system undergoes a transient stop-over (Transient Thermal Instability —
Zone 2 in Fig. 29), while increasing the hyper-gravity level, the expansion pressure
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42
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Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

b3084-v1-ch01
Figure 29. Wall temperatures (left) and internal pressure signals (right) of a closed-loop copper capillary PHP tested at the ESA Large Diameter Centrifuge
facility. The PHP was tested in vertical, BHM conditions for 50 W (1st row), 70 W (2nd row) and 100 W (3rd row). On the left, the reddish colors for the
temperature refers to the evaporator section, while the bluish colors refer to the condenser section. Zone 1 represent the Thermal Crisis, while Zone 2 the
Transient Thermal Instability (Mameli et al., 2014).

page 42
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 43

is completely damped by the pressure gravity head in some of the channels, and the
local wall temperature increases (Thermal Crisis — Zone 1 in Fig. 29).

9. PHP Applications
The PHP has found many potential applications, even if the working industrial
applications are still very limited. At the moment, most of the PHP systems are at a
Technological Readiness Level4 from 5 to 7. In the last 10 years, a strong increase
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of the attention from industrial actors also has led to a very high number of patents
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and collaborations with academia. A short selection of the potential applications

and of preliminary results is given in the following paragraphs.

9.1. Selected applications

9.1.1. Flexible PHP
A novel, interesting category of PHPs is the flexible PHP which may be built using
a polymeric substrate. The polymeric PHPs are attractive due to low material cost in
the manufacturing process and its application to flexible and deployable systems. Lin
et al. (2009) built a flat-plate polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) closed-loop capillary
PHP (di = 2 mm, 11 turns) with copper evaporator and condenser in order to
perform both thermal and visual investigation. The PHP worked with ethanol and
methanol, even if the performance was low comparing with similar copper capillary
PHPs. Ji et al. (2013) also investigated a transparent closed-loop capillary PHP
(di = 2 mm, 5 turns) made of PDMS. An improved manufacturing process with good
bonding strength was studied, and a prototype of PDMS PHP was demonstrated.
Ethanol and Al2 O3/ethanol nanofluid were charged into the PHP at FR = 70%.
Oscillating motion in the PHP was generated.

9.1.2. Fuel cells and battery

Temperature level and uniformity play an important role in battery thermal
management. Air-cooling systems are still a valid solution for the battery cooling;
however industries, especially in the automotive sector, are recently looking for
integrated solutions with a thermal network, able to cool down heating elements
in passive way (i.e., without the use of electrical power for fans, for example) and
to transport heat inside the cabin, especially for winter conditions. It is therefore
necessary to design a thermal management system to increase the battery lifetime
which has the characteristics of being passive, light and connected to a thermal

4 TRL 7: Prototype near or at planned operation system. Represents a major step up from TRL 6 by
requiring demonstration of an actual system prototype in an operation environment.
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44 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

network. Rao et al. (2011, 2014) and Wang et al. (2016) have used a closed-loop
copper capillary PHP for the thermal management of batteries (acetone, FR = 50%,
di = 1.8 mm, 4 turns). The PHP was immersed in paraffin as phase change
material. The results showed that in order to obtain evenly distributed temperature,
the start-up temperature of PHP (T = 50◦ C) should be below the phase change
temperature of PCM. The PCM/PHP-based system was more efficient in cooling
than the PHP-cooled system. A solution with the PCM material was also recently
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considered for a sounding rocket experiment (Creatini et al., 2015; Nannipieri et al.,
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2017).
Clement et al. (2013) designed a closed-loop copper capillary PHP for thermal
management of a fuel cell (di = 2.6 mm, 15 turns, acetone, water and methanol
at different FRs). The integration of a PHP within the bipolar plates of the stack
eliminates the need for ancillary cooling equipment, thus also reducing parasitic
losses and increasing the net energy output. The tests have been conducted under
conditions to simulate heat dissipation requirements of a proton exchange membrane
(PEM) fuel cell stack. Power inputs to the evaporator side varied from 80 to 180 W.
Methanol outperformed other fluids tested: with FR = 45% and 120 W power load,
the PHP took the shortest time to reach steady-state with the smallest steady-state
temperature differences.

9.1.3. Electronic cooling

One of the most important applications of PHP is the thermal management of elec-
tronics, especially for CPU (Dang et al., 2017) and LED cooling (Deng et al., 2012),
solid-state microwave chips and large cold plates (area ∼0.3 m2 ). The main appli-
cation is for high power systems with medium/high heat fluxes (q < 30 W/cm2 ),
where the sintered heat pipes and vapor chambers have either issues in covering large
surfaces or they are too expensive for the market. Furthermore, the deployability
can be a successful characteristic of flexible PHPs. For example, Miyazaki
(2005) developed a series of flexible CLPHP for notebook personal computer
cooling that can dissipate heat from the CPUs to the rear surface of the foldable
display. The wing type design with di = 1.2 mm and 12 turns achieved a
thermal conductance of 3.5 W/K and a maximum heat transport capability of
100 W which are reasonably thought to be a sufficient potential for such kind of
application.
Presently, the main aim for electronic cooling is about the embedding of a
PHP in a PCB board in order to address a thermal management solution within
the limits and requirements of power electronic packaging. Embedded PHP cooling
plates can be effective in covering large surfaces (Jahani et al., 2013; Karimi et al.,
2004).
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 45

Maydanik et al. (2009) built a compact cooling system for high power electronics
on the basis of a closed-loop PHP. The PHP operation has been investigated with
water, methanol and R141b with both a uniform and a concentrated supply of heat
loads. A reliable operation of the device has been demonstrated in the range of heat
loads from 5 to 250 W. With a heat load of 125 W positioned on an evaporator area
of 1 cm2 , a minimum value of the thermal resistance equal to 0.62 K/W was attained
with methanol as working fluid.
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Bench-top experiments have shown that a 3D flat-plate PHP embedded into

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an aluminum panel can reach an effective thermal conductivity greater than

8,000 W/mK (more than 48 times higher than a traditional board) at an axial heat
flux of 300 W/cm2 and Rt < 0.08 K/W (Thompson et al., 2011).
Kearney et al. (2015) used dielectric working fluids (Novec™ 649, Novec™ 774)
in a 44 channel open-looped PHP with different FR. Novec™ 649 shows potential
as an appropriate dielectric cooling fluid for a PHP embedded in a PCB. The PHP
reached a minimum thermal resistance of 0.2 K/W at FR = 40% for an applied heat
flux of 2.5 W/cm2 in vertical position BHM.
Burban et al. (2013) analyzed an open-loop PHP for electronic thermal
management in automotive applications. The work investigated the performance
of four coolants including water, acetone, n-pentane and methanol. The prototype
shown up to 550 W of heat removal with an axial thermal resistance lower
than 0.175 K/W. Even if the solution was not embedded, it coped with the
heat losses of an integrated-gate bipolar transistor pack throughout its operation
cycle.
Other studies on using a PHP for high power electronics are from (Zuo et al.,
2001; Vassilev et al., 2007; Kearney et al., 2013; Torresin et al., 2017).

9.1.4. Cryogenics
Different studies are dedicated to cryogenics applications. Jiao et al. (2009) built
a cryogenic closed-loop copper capillary PHP (nitrogen, FR = 48%, 15 turns),
showing that the maximum heat transport capability reached 380 W with an
average temperature difference of 49◦ C between the evaporator and condenser.
The thermal resistance decreased from 0.256 to 0.112 K/W, while the heat load
increased from 22.5 to 321.8 W. Mito et al. (2011) have successfully operated a
PHP using hydrogen, neon and nitrogen, achieving effective thermal conductivities
up to 3 kW/mK, 8 kW/mK and 18 kW/mK, respectively. Fonseca et al. (2015) have
tested a nitrogen PHP that is able to transfer 3.5 W with a T = 1.0 K across an
adiabatic length of 8 cm. The resulting effective thermal conductivities were between
5 and 35 kW/mK. Jiao et al. (2009) studied the thermal performance of a cryogenic
closed-loop stainless steel PHP (helium, FR = 78%, di = 0.5 mm, 15 turns).
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46 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

A mechanical–thermal switch worked during the pre-cooling process and it was set
off during the tests. Tests were performed with different heat power, tilt angle and
liquid FR. The effective thermal conductivity reached 13 kW/mK. Another helium
PHP (open end, 5 turns, di = 0.5 mm) with an original pre-cooling system has been
developed by Bonnet et al. (2012). Other studies on cryogenics PHP are, among the
many, from Han et al. (2008), who developed a cryogenic PHP for cell vitrification
Liu et al. (2015) and Deng et al. (2015).
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9.1.5. Microtechnology
A potential application of PHP is in the large sector of microtechnology and
microsystems. Research activities have been dedicated to the construction of micro-
PHPs, with hydraulic diameters smaller than 0.5 mm. Qu et al. (2012) investigated
the thermal and flow behavior of a silicon-based micro-PHP with trapezoidal
microchannels with a hydraulic diameter of 352 μm. FC-72 and R113 were used
as working fluids. The evaporator wall temperature, or the maximum localized
temperature, of the micro-PHP at moderate FRs was measured and compared to
those derived from the empty microdevice. Experimental results showed that the
micro-PHP embedded in a semiconductor chip could significantly decrease the
maximum localized temperature. At a power input of 6.3 W, reductions in the
evaporator wall temperature of about 42.1◦ C (or 34.1%) and 41.9◦ C (or 33.9%) were
obtained for micro-PHP charged with R113 at FRs of 41% and 58%, respectively.
When the micro-PHP was charged with FC-72, a maximum power input of about
9.5 W associated with a heat flux up to 10.7 W/cm2 was reached with a moderate
rise of the evaporator temperature. No local nucleate boiling was detected in
the micro-PHP, differently from the results reported for traditional PHPs. The
silicon-based micro-PHP starts up within 200 s when charged with R113 or FC-
72, but it fails at all inclination angles when charged with water or ethanol.
When the micro-PHP is in the horizontal orientation, the thermal performance
decreases, indicating that, also in this case, the gravity effect cannot be ignored
(Qu et al., 2012).
Jun et al. (2016) determine which type of micro-PHP performs better between
a closed-loop micro-PHP and a closed-end micro-PHP. To fabricate the micro-
PHPs, meandering rectangular channels (ethanol, di = 0.67 mm, 5, 10, 15, 20 turns)
were etched on a silicon wafer using MEMS techniques. In the case of 20 turns,
the closed-loop micro-PHP and the closed-end micro-PHP exhibit almost identical
thermal performances and flow characteristics. In addition, both micro-PHPs have
performance independent of orientation. However, in the case of 10 and 15 turns, the
closed end micro-PHP shows stable operation regardless of the inclination, while the
thermal performance of the closed-loop micro-PHP deteriorates as the orientation
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 47

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Figure 30. Theoretical evaluation of the minimum internal diameter for a closed-loop capillary PHP
filled by water (Qu et al., 2016).

varies from vertical to horizontal. In the case of 5 turns, the closed-loop micro-PHP
shows orientation-dependent performance, while the closed-end micro-PHP does
not start-up at all at any inclination angles.
The applications of a PHP for microdevices is limited by the fact that there is
a diameter threshold under which the PHP is not operational. Such a limit is still
not well studied, but generally it depends on the working fluids, the number of
turns and the interfacial velocities (Qu et al., 2016). Figure 30 shows a modeling
of the minimum internal diameter for a water closed-loop PHP in function of turns
and two-phase superficial velocity. Since there is not detailed study yet about the
minimum channel diameter, it is not possible to draw any conclusion.

9.1.6. Solar collector

Many authors explored the potential use of PHPs for solar collector (Rittidech et al.,
2007; Nguyen et al., 2012; Kargarsharifabad et al., 2013b, 2014; Xu et al., 2017)
and derivate usage, such as desalinization (Kargarsharifabad et al., 2013a). Rittidech
et al. (2007) investigated a flat-plate solar collector in conjunction with a closed-end
PHP operating with R134a as a working fluid and showed that this solution offers
a reasonably efficient and cost-effective alternative to conventional solar collector
system using heat pipes, with the additional advantages of corrosion-free operation
and absence of icing problems during winter months.
Xu et al. (2017) carried out an experimental investigation of a solar collector
which integrated a closed-end PHP and a parabolic concentrator. The copper
capillary PHP is used as an absorber due to its simple structure and high heat
transfer capacity. The operating characteristics and the thermal efficiency of the
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48 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

solar collector were experimentally studied (HFE7100, FR = 40%, di = 2 mm).

The absorber works well with a thermal resistance of about 0.26 K/W. The collector
has a start-up temperature of 75◦ C.
Kargarsharifabad et al. (2013a) built a solar desalination system based on a PHP,
obtaining a remarkable increase in the rate of desalinated water production. One can
mention an application using a very long PHP channel (Arab et al., 2012).
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9.1.7. Heat recovery

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A further example of application of PHP worth citing is the heat recovery systems.
A PHP-based heat exchanger between counter-flowing air streams in HVAC air
systems (i.e., outdoor and exhaust air flows) is analyzed (Mahajan et al., 2017). The
closed-loop copper capillary PHP (acetone, di = 1.65 mm, 20 turns, FR not given)
is finned (Fig. 31). The performance of the new system are promising. Khodami
et al. (2016) proposed a PHP-based heat exchanger for exhaust heat recovery from
a chimney. Two rows of closed-loop copper capillary PHP (ethanol and silver
nanofluid, FR = 40%, 18 turns) have been implemented to extract heat from exhaust
hot gas from the combustion of natural gas. The energy analysis shows that ethanol,
at an inlet smoke temperature of 120◦ C, has the best functionality. The use of the
silver nanofluid increases efficiency as much as 1–3%.

Figure 31. Front view (a) and isometric view (b) of a closed-loop copper capillary PHP used as
HVAC air system heat (Mahajan et al., 2017).
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Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 49

9.2. PHP-related patents

Presently there are more than 900 patents worldwide related to PHP/OHP at various
stage of applications (see Table 5). Most of them are related to electronic cooling, but
there are many also related to solar collectors, battery cooling, HVAC, thermo-electric
cooling, thermal management of instruments and to various solutions to improve PHP
performance (microgrooves, flexible heat pipes, multi-pipe).
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Table 5. PHP-related selected patents.

Author, year Patent title (Number)

Akachi (1990) Structure of a heat pipe (US patent 4,921,041)

Akachi (1993) Structure of a microheat pipe (US patent 5,219,020)
Akachi (1996) L-type heat sink (US patent 5,490,558)
Akachi (1997a) Ribbon-like plate heat pipe (US patent 5,642,775)
Akachi (1997b) Tunnel plate-type heat pipe (US patent 5,697,428)
Akachi (1998) Method of manufacturing tunnel plate-type heat pipe (US
patent 5,737,840)
Akachi (2000) Heat transfer device having metal band formed with
longitudinal holes (US patent 6,026,890)
Smyrnov (2004) Method of action of the PHP, its construction and the
devices on its base (US 6,672,373)
Asfia et al. (2007) Cooling apparatus system and associated method (US
7,345,877)
Asfia et al. (2008) Cooling system and associated method for planar PHP (US
20080087406 A1)
Chang et al. (2009) LED lamp cooling apparatus with PHP (US 7547124 B2)
Mongia et al. (2009) High performance spreader for lid cooling applications (US
20090323276 A1)
Vasiliev (2011) Heat exchange device made of polymeric material (US
20110067843 A1)
Agostini et al. (2012) Heat exchanger based on PHP principle (EP 2444770 A1)
PHP intercooler for cooling pressurized air of automobile
engine (CN 203050879 U)
(2013)
Silicon-based micro-PHP with function channel
(2014) structure (CN 104132569 A)
Hardesty (2014) Microchannel PHP (US 8919426 B2)
Energy-saving heated brick bed system based on PHP
(2014) recovered waste heat (CN 203744310 U)
GEELS et al. (2014) Fixating PHPs (WO 2014207692 A1)
Tseng (2015) Pulsating multi-pipe heat pipe (US 20150060019 A1)
Paschkewitz (2015) PHP spreader for ink jet printer (US 9132645 B2)
Agostini et al. (2015) Heat exchange device based on a PHP (EP 2857783 A1) —
(WO 2015049388 A1)
, PHP radiating apparatus for cooling chips
(2016) (CN 105633037 A)
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50 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

10. Conclusions
The number of parameters influencing a PHP is huge. Their role is not completely
understood, although some useful tendencies have been found. In particular, one
apprehends the influence of some of the parameters, such as the working fluid’s
physical properties, the FR, the orientation, the geometry, and even the non-
condensable gas. Other parameters, such as number of turns and channel material are
important, but, aside from obvious considerations — such as that the PHP thermal
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resistance decreases with the number of turns, or that the wall material with the
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highest thermal conductivity, chemically compatible with the filling fluid, allows the
highest performance — no reliable correlation and no robust parametric analysis is
present. The collection of almost 200 papers presented in this chapter tries to offer
to the reader the best possible and concise representation of the results and the still
existing deficiencies in the experimental studies. As for now, no numerical tool
can provide a proper design of a PHP. On the side of real applications, especially
in the last 10 years, a great number of applications with high potential has been
developed in many different fields, especially for the thermal management of high-
power electronics, batteries, solar collectors. Nevertheless, in most of the cases, the
PHP is still at a technology readiness level below 5. The use of special fluids may
improve the PHP performance for specific applications, even if the long-term effects
are not completely investigated.

11. Standard Relevant Parameters and Conditions

A standardization of the information and data which should be defined in a research
paper on PHP.

Geometry Materials and operation Uncertainties

PHP type Fluid(s) Inner diameter (m)

Tube/channel outer diameter Wall material Temperature (K)
Tube/channel inner diameter FR Pressure (Pa)
Overall length/width Internal mean surface roughness Thermal resistance (K/W)
Overall length of the channel Initial vacuum level before filling FR (%)
Number of turns Total heat input at the evaporator Heat flux (W/m2 )
Evaporation section length/area Maximum heat flux at the Heat input (W)
Adiabatic section length/area evaporator Heat output (W)
Condenser section length/area Coolant temperature at the Inclination (◦ )
Turn radius of the channel condenser
Inclination/BHM-THM Start-up power
PHP mass
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12. Properties of Pure Substances Often Used in PHP

Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications

Latent
Internal heat Therm. Surf.
Temp Pressure Density energy Enthalpy Entropy dP/dT (vaporiz Cv Cp Viscosity Cond. Tension
(K) (bar) (kg/m3) (kJ/kg) (kJ/kg) (J/g∗ K) (bar/K) ation (J/g∗ K) (J/g∗ K) (Pa∗ s) (W/mK) (N/m) Phase

Deionized 323 0.1226 988.06 208.7 208.71 0.70187 0.60905 2382.3 4.0271 4.1815 0.000548 0.64337 0.067969 Liq
water
Deionized 323 0.1226 0.082567 2442.5 2591 8.0774 1.4661 1.9465 1.06E-05 0.020353 Vap
water
Ethanol 333 0.472 770 328.2 328.24 1.4297 8.5914 988.9 2.78 5.88E-04 0.171 0.0192 Liq
Ethanol 333 0.472 0.748 1163.2 1220.8 4.1930 1.54 9.59E-06 0.0179 Vap
Methanol 323 0.55323 762.67 −40.569 −40.496 −0.1224 2.40415 1128.2 2.2554 2.7068 0.000389 0.19374 0.020191 Liq
Methanol 323 0.55323 0.6877 1007.2 1087.7 3.3703 3.3095 4.1558 0.000010 0.018188 Vap
Benzene 323 0.35952 847 −55.508 −55.465 −0.1638 1.36953 415.70 1.2463 1.7766 0.024957 Liq
Benzene 323 0.35952 1.0619 326.71 360.57 1.1242 1.0462 1.1608 Vap
R134a 283 4.1253 1261.5 213.04 213.37 1.0478 13.7936 190.86 0.8916 1.3699 0.000235 0.087683 0.010159 Liq
R134a 283 4.1253 20.127 383.74 404.23 1.7222 0.7900 0.9445 1.11E-05 0.012388 Vap
R134a 323 13.129 1103 270.2 271.39 1.2367 33.0352 151.99 0.9492 1.5650 0.000142 0.070491 0.004909 Liq
R134a 323 13.129 65.996 403.49 423.38 1.7073 0.9200 1.2443 1.29E-05 0.016713 Vap
Ammonia 323 20.261 563.12 579.42 583.01 2.2683 52.6386 1051.2 2.7412 5.0613 0.000104 0.416720 0.01747 Liq
Ammonia 323 20.261 15.722 1505.4 1634.2 5.5228 2.3812 3.8181 1.07E-05 0.030131 Vap
Acetone 323 0.81509 756.27 −13.939 −13.831 −0.042332 0.02913 508.23 1.5936 2.2104 0.000245 0.14512 0.019613 Liq

b3084-v1-ch01
Acetone 323 0.81509 1.8471 450.27 494.40 1.5311 1.3257 1.5300 0.000009 0.016210 Vap

51

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52 Modeling of Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the European Space Agency for the support
through the MAP INWIP AO-2004-096. MM would like to thank the European
Space Agency also for the support through MAP ENCOM, AO-2004-096, and UK
EPSRC Grant EP/P013112/1. MM would also like to thank Prof. S. Chandra at the
University of Toronto and Prof. A. Amirfazli at the York University in Toronto,
Canada, for having granted permission to spend some time as Visiting Professor at
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their Institutions. VN is grateful to all collaborators who contributed to the PHP-

Encyclopedia of Two-Phase Heat Transfer and Flow IV Downloaded from [Link]

related research during, the last years, especially Dr. Ph. Gully, Mr. E. Ercolani,
Prof. J. Duplat, Dr. L. Fourgeaud and Dr. I. Nekrashevych. The authors would
also like to thank Dr. V. Ayel and Dr. M. Mameli for the continuous support and
many discussions in the last years. VN is grateful to his colleagues Prof. F. Lefèvre,
Prof. J. Bonjour, Prof. Y. Bertin and Dr. C. Romestant for many fruitful discussions
and collaborations. MM is thankful to Prof. S. Filippeschi, Dr. D. Mangini, Dr. N.
Miche, Dr. A. Georgoulas, Dr. C. De Falco and Prof. L. Araneo, and all his Ph.D.
students for the never-ending interest in PHPs.

Nomenclature
◦ ◦
C centigrade degrees
Bo Bond number
c specific heat (J/(kg K))
C viscous friction coefficient
g gravity acceleration (m/s2 )
Ga Garimella number
h specific enthalpy (J/kg)
k heat conductivity (W/(mK))
K Kelvin
Ku Kutateladze number
l characteristic length scale (m)
L length (m)
m mass (kg)
P power (W)
p pressure (Pa)
Q heat amount (J)
q heat flux (W/m2 )
R equivalent thermal resistance
Re liquid Reynolds number
T temperature (K)
t time (s)
April 3, 2018 18:40 Encyclopedia of Two-Phase Heat Transfer and Flow IV (Vol. 1) - 9.75in x 6.5in b3084-v1-ch01 page 53

Pulsating Heat Pipes: Experimental Analysis, Design and Applications 53

U velocity (m/s)
We liquid Weber number
Abbreviations
BHM bottom heated mode
ESA European space agency
FR filling ratio
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OHP oscillating heat pipe

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PHP pulsating heat pipe

THM top heated mode
Greek symbols
μ liquid dynamic viscosity [Pa s]
ρ density (kg/m3 )
σ surface tension (N/m)
Subscripts
0 initial
a adiabatic section
c condenser
e evaporator
eq equivalent
f liquid film
i internal
l liquid
o outer tube wall
sat saturation
t tube, thermal
v vapor at constant volume
w internal tube wall

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