Experimental study on the heat transfer performance of a loop heat pipe

A simple experimental setup was built to test a loop heat pipe(LHP).The loop heat pipe is made of stainless steel.The wick is made of copper wire with 500 pores per inch.An experimental study is performed to study the heat transfer characteristics of the loop heat pipe under different heating power values.Experimental results show that the start-up characteristics and thermal resistance of the loop heat pipe are related to the input heat.When the input heat power increases,the start-up time is shorter,and the thermal resistance is also reduced.The temperature of the entrance of condenser inversely fluctuates with that of reservoir after the loop heat pipe starts up successfully.These results will be helpful to offer theoretical basis for the loop heat pipe in heat sink application.