Week 2

In week 2, the team discussed the timeline and final deliverables of this project.

Project Timeline

The project timeline is shown below in Table 1.

Table 1: Project Timeline

The main tasks of the project include research, initial design, ordering of material, generation of a CAD model, construction, testing, design optimization and the final report preparation stage. Research will be done throughout the first few weeks to aid the design, simulation and construction processes. Components are ordered this week, and it will take on average a few days to a week to arrive. We have started to build the CAD model using Autodesk Fusion 360 and Solidworks software.

For the construction and testing phase, two prototypes and one final model will be built in the course of six weeks. The first prototype will be constructed in week 3, and tested in week 4. Then, the second prototype will be made in week 5 and tested in week 6. The final model of the heat pipe will be made in week 7 and tested in week 8. Testing the different prototypes and the final model will enable adjustment to be made to make the heat pipe more efficient. The last weeks will be when the team prepares for the final project and presentation.

Deliverables

The planned deliverables for the Heat Pipe project are as follow:

CAD Models of the Heat Pipe Designs

Prototype 1

Heat pipe sealed at both ends to test the functionality of the mesh and the heatsink
Liquid volume permanently sealed within the pipe
Crimped and soldered ends of the pipe

Prototype 2

Heat pipe with one sealed end and one resealable end to test the working fluid
One cap is threaded with an o-ring seal

Testing Results and Performances

Working fluid comparisons with efficiency and time

Final Model:

Functional heat pipe with the best composition of working fluid based on lab results

Comments

Week 7

This week in lab the team finished the construction of the final heat pipe design and was able to find a vacuum pump to test how a heat pipe would perform under vacuum. Unfortunately, the results were not promising as the new heat pipe did not nearly work as it was expected to. For the final heat pipe, one end is closed, while the other end is equipped with a valve, as shown below, that can be used to add working fluid and connect to the vacuum pump to create vacuum. After the air is pumped out, the heat pipe is tested with acetone and with water as working fluids. The result is not as well as expected. More experiments will be conducted on this heat pipe next week. The results of the experimentation done are shown below:

Week 8

This week in lab the heatsink was turned on the lathe from 2" 6061-T5 aluminum round stock. The finished part deviated slightly from the plans as it was determined that it would be ineffective to build the entire part after a cutting tool failure led to one of the fins breaking. The finished part is composed of only 4 fins compared to the designed 16. A CAD model was drawn up with a drawing sheet to use while machining. Figure 1: Heatsink Drawing w/ Dimensions Other than the tool failure, the machining process when fairly smooth with the completion of a finished part. Figure 2: Cutting off a blank in the Horizontal Band Saw Figure 3: Facing the part Figure 4: Fin cutting with a 1/16" parting tool Some tests of the finalized heat pipe were also run this week, it was tested with water and again with acetone. During the test, at about 450 s, the heater at the evaporator end was turned up to a higher setting, because a possible reason for the inefficiency o...

Week 5: Lab

The team conducted some more tests on Prototype 2 as it was the best performing heat pipe constructed thus far. The test was conducted in the angled orientation as Prototype 2 hadn't been tested in that configuration yet. The results were promising as Prototype 2 exceeded expectations and transferred heat effectively throughout the test. The condenser end increased by 52 degrees over 300 seconds which was an improvement over the horizontal test conducted with Prototype 2. In both tests, the difference between the condenser temperature and the evaporator temperature was calculated and displayed on the graphs. The graph below shows the first test for Prototype 2. To verify our results the test was run a second time but for a longer period of time in order to narrow down on where the heat pipe's maximum operating temperature would be. The results are shown below. For Prototype 2, the effective temperature limit of the heat pipe can be approximated to 125 F without a hea...

Group 073-10: Efficient Heat Pipes for Small Scale Industrial/Commercial Applications

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