Heat pipe routines built into Ansys Thermal Desktop provide fast system-level solutions to modeling heat pipes when a full two-phase solution is not required. Both constant conductance (CCHP, also called FCHP), with or without non-condensable gas (NCG), and variable conductance (VCHP) pipes can easily be simulated, using either 1D or 2D thermal models (axial, axial and circumferential, rectangular). These routines were written specifically to co-solve wall temperatures and gas-front locations, resulting in a more robust tool that is capable of predicting QLeff (power-length product). In addition, fast and easy geometric model generation can include bonding or contact to thermal surfaces and solids and even to other heat pipes.
Heat Pipe Sample Applications:
Deployable two-phase radiator systems for aerospace applications
Electronic cooling systems
De-icing applications
Isothermal furnace liners
Heat pipe heat exchangers
The methods for modeling loop heat pipes (LHPs) and capillary pumped loops (CPLs) are very different from those used to model heat pipes. Unlike a heat pipe, self-pumping loops require full thermohydraulic modeling of the fluid and the thermal-structural environment. In addition to supporting the modeling of single-phase pumped loops, Thermal Desktop has several features which make it uniquely capable of modeling two-phase pumped loops and capillary pumped loops. Using Thermal Desktop, you can capture everything from the system-level effects of the LHP all the way down to detailed thermodynamic and hydrodynamic transient events such as LHP start-up, compensation chamber (reservoir) quenching, partially primed wicks, and pressure and flow oscillations.