Abstract
Considering heat pipe design principles in fabrication and operational performances, water is one of the most recommended working fluids to make mid to low tempera lure heat pipes. But the conventional water heat pipes might encounter the failure in a cold start-up operation when socked at a chilling temperature lower than the freezing point. If they are subjected to a heat supply for start-up at a temperature around $-20^{\circ}C$, the rate of the vapor flow and the corresponding heat transfer from the evaporator to the condenser is so small that the vapor keeps to stick on the surface of the chilling condenser wall, forming an ice layer, resulting in a liquid deficiency in the evaporator. This kind of problems was resolved by Kang et al. in 2004 by adopting a gas loading heat pipe technology to the conventional water heat pipes. This study was conducted to examine a chilling start-up procedure of gas loading heat pipes by investigating the behaviors of heat pipe wall temperatures. And the thermal resistance of the gas loaded heat pipe that depends on the operating temperatures and heat loads was measured and examined. Two water heat pipes were designed and fabricated for the comparison of performances, one conventional and the other loaded with $N_2$ gas. They were put on start-up test at a heat supply of 30 W after having been socked at an initial temperature around $-20^{\circ}C$. It was observed that the gas loaded one had succeeded in chilling start-up operation.