A study of self-circulating thermosyphon (Basic performance)

Abstract

The self-circulating thermosyphon (SCTS) operates without external pumping power. It is a closed loop of pipe and consists of heater, condenser, heat exchanger and recuperator. In this paper the basic performance of SCTS was examined experimentally under various back ground pressures and power inputs to the heater. Experimental results showed that the stable operation of SCTS was limited by the minimum input power overcoming the total losses of the system and the maximum power within the ability of the condenser. At fixed back ground pressure, mass flow rate and quality of water vapor in heater were confirmed to increase with the power input. As back ground pressure increased, mass flow rate was prone to decline. Those suggest that the main driving force of SCTS is buoyancy force of the vapor. Thermal transport efficiency ranged from 0.4 to 0.9 as far as the present conditions are concerned.