Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : September 20, 2023 - September 21, 2023
In recent years, the development of energy-efficient and resource-saving products has been demanded towards achieving decarbonization. Among them, the high performance of automotive heat exchangers offers various advantages such as weight reduction, pump miniaturization, and resource conservation, with further prospects for application in electric vehicles through heat recovery. In this study, an experimental investigation of a porous heat pipe for automotive use, fabricated by sintering aluminum fibers and heat transfer tube, was conducted using a wind tunnel to enhance air-side heat transfer. Sintering the fibers and heat transfer tubes together expands the heat transfer area, and thermal resistance between them becomes low. The heat exchange was performed by passing HFE7000, a single-phase gas with a superheat of +3°C, through the test section while simultaneously cooling it with air, thereby utilizing condensation heat transfer. As a result, the porous heat pipe achieved 1.5 times higher heat transfer compared to the conventional corrugated fin. Furthermore, it was observed that the porous heat pipe exhibited a uniform temperature distribution throughout the heat exchanger, which was attributed to the high thermal conductivity of the porous structure.
