Heat pipe design optimization through the application of surface chemical treatments and the adaptation of core annular flow theory

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The ability to transfer heat quickly and efficiently across modest distances is essential to many engineering industries e.g. aerospace, electronics and HVAC. An especially effective device for accomplishing this task is the heat pipe, which, in its simplest incarnation, consists of a closed metal tube inside of which is a working fluid that respectively evaporates and condenses where the tube is hot and cold.Working with a Canadian company committed to fabricating novel heat transfer and air handling equipment, we will use new advances in surface science and micro-fluidics to better understand heat pipe operation with a view towards improving performance through better design. In addition to generating new knowledge and training a variety of students, our major (industrial) deliverable will be a computer program capable of informing design decisions. The program in question will leverage four decades of original research in the field and will also make use of new results generated through our laboratory program. More specifically, we plan to experimentally test the feasibility of using surface chemical treatments to modify the surface energy of the wick, the component internal to the heat pipe that passively "pumps" condensed liquid back to the hot end of the heat pipe. Through such a chemical treatment, we hope to realize favourable regimes of evaporation and condensation and to separately minimize entrainment, the process by which liquid droplets are sheared away from the wick. In a related theoretical effort, we plan to adapt ideas from core annular flow theory so as to improve the dynamical description of the liquid-vapour counterflow.Results from our study will be both communicated in the scientific literature and also adapted for pragmatic application by the industrial partner. In this latter respect, we envision making a key technical contribution by improving the design capabilities and also the profitability of a Canadian company eager for new opportunities.