Effect of Pure and Binary Azeotropic Fluids on Heat Pipes Performance

Abstract

Azeotropic fluids are considered to be a beneficial discovery used in various operations involving mechanical performance of machines. It is the thermodynamic property of the fluids to absorb heat and dissipate it. For instance, the addition of alcohols in water may increase the performance of these fluids. The objective of this work was to conduct a comparative study on heat pipe performance with different working fluids. The working fluids chosen for the study were water and pure ethanol. The concentrations of ethanol in water differed between 25% and 95%. The material of heat pipes was copper with a sintered wicks structure. The experimental results revealed that, the evaporator temperature for water was lower than that of the ethanol and its mixture at high heating input. However, the heat transported by the heat pipes of water was considerably greater than that of the heat pipes of ethanol and binary fluids as working fluids.