Experimental Characterization of an Open Loop Pulsating Heat Pipe Cooler

Pulsating heat pipes (PHP) have emerged in the last years as suitable cooling devices for dissipating the high heat loads generated by electronic devices since they allow to extend the applicability of air cooling in area nowadays covered by water cooling. Two-phase cooling technologies based on the two phase pulsating heat pipe principle are promising solutions because, being entirely passive they can comply with long term operation without maintenance. The main advantage of a PHP compared to conventional thermosyphon technologies for electronics cooling is that a PHP is orientation independent. The authors has developed a novel, compact, and low cost PHP based on automotive technology. The present paper presents the experimental results of an air cooled open loop pulsating heat pipe with optimized manifold design to minimize fluid pressure drops in the fluid turns. The effect of several parameters including filling ratio and heat load are presented. Tests have been done with the refrigerant fluid R245fa in vertical and horizontal orientations. The measurements showed a maximum thermal resistance ranging between 40 and 48 K/kW in vertical and horizontal position respectively for a heat load of 2 kW and air temperature of 20 °C.