Abstract

Heat pipe is a thermodynamic device which transfers heat over considerable distances with a very small temperature drop. Entropy generation can be considered as a significant parameter on heat pipe performance. Major reasons for entropy generation in a heat pipe system are temperature difference between cold and hot reservoirs, frictional losses in the working fluid flows and vapor temperature/pressure drop along heat pipe. The present objective is to estimate the entropy generation in a two dimensional flat heat pipe. An experimental set up is fabricated for the analysis of the transient operation of a flat heat pipe. The entropy generation depends on both temperature and velocity distributions. The analysis involves the measurement of vapor temperature and vapor velocity and using the obtained temperature and velocity distributions, entropy generation rate is calculated.

Key words: Heat pipe, entropy generation, transient analysis, second law of thermodynamics.