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Project Overview

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Heat pipes are used to transfer heat from one place to another. It uses capillary action and thermal conductivity of the metals and working fluids to efficiently transfer heat energy. Its application is very wide, such as to cool CPUs in computer and recover energy in the HVAC system. The motivation of this project is the ever-growing need for an efficient heat transfer system. Heat transfer is imperative to technological advancement. Therefore, designing a heat pipe that is both efficient and cost-effective is paramount.
          
          The objective of this project is to design and manufacture an efficient heat pipe for low temperature application. The heat pipe will be made of copper tubing with mesh inside the tubes to serve as wick, similar to what is shown in Figure 1 below. There will also be Aluminum heat sink fins at the condenser end to increase surface area for the spreading of heat to the surrounding. The main tasks include research, initial design, ordering of material, generation of CAD model, construction, testing, and optimization. The design and construction of the heat pipe are limited to a budget of $400 and a time period of ten weeks. Possible technical challenges are the soldering process to combine the different components as well as the construction of a resealable end which allows testing for different working fluids. The desired outcome is a functional heat pipe that is able to transfer heat efficiently. The heat pipe will be tested throughout the construction and optimization process. The final product will be evaluated with laboratory equipment.

 Basic Deliverables:
  • CAD Model of the Heat Pipe
  • Run simulations
  • Rapid Prototype to Test Construction Methods
  • Prototype Testing
  • Design Reiteration
  • Final Heat Pipe Construction
  • Testing
  • Final Report

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Week 4: Lab

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Week 5: Lab

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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...
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Week 1

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The primary focus of week 1 was to research the existing designs of a heat pipe, understand the mechanisms at which they operate, and come up with ideas to build an efficient low temperature heat pipe. The main purpose of the heat pipe is to transfer heat from one place to another. Research was conducted on low-temperature applications and the advantage and disadvantage of different designs. After analyzing the information and taking into account the time and budget restriction for this project, an initial design of the heat pipe was generated.  The heat pipe will be made of copper tubing with mesh inside the tubes to serve as a wick. There will also be Aluminum heatsink fins at the condenser end to increase surface area for the spreading of heat to the surrounding. The main tasks include research, initial design, ordering of material, generation of CAD model, construction, testing, and optimization. The design and construction of the heat pipe are limited to a budget of $400 ...
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