Thermal Switch Characteristics of a Multi-channel Parallel Pulsating Heat Pipe

An experimental platform was built to evaluate the thermal switching performance of a parallel pulsating multi-channel heat pipe using fluoroether HFE-7100 as the working fluid with a liquid filling ratio of 80%. The heating and cooling temperatures of the pulsating heat pipe were controlled using water baths for heating and cooling. The thermal switching characteristics of the pulsating heat pipe at different cooling temperatures were investigated experimentally. The results showed that after the complete start-up of the multi-channel parallel pulsating heat pipe, the average temperature of the evaporation section decreased, the average temperature of the condensation section increased, the thermal resistance decreased, and the heat transfer performance improved rapidly. The temperature and thermal resistance transient processes exhibited a sudden step change, which can be used as a thermal switch. As the cooling temperature increased, the closing time of the thermal switch and the switch temperature increased. At a cooling temperature of 10 ℃, the closing time of the thermal switch was 12 s, and the switch temperature was 59.3 ℃. At higher cooling temperatures, the thermal switch performed better, characterized by a greater increase in the switch ratio and heat transfer rate. When the cooling temperature was 30 ℃, the heat transfer rate increased by 26.8 W following the closure of the thermal switch, with a switch ratio of 5.05.