Experimental Study on Startup Performance of a High-temperature Liquid Metal Heat Pipe with Fins

This paper presents the experimental results of a high-temperature heat pipe with fins at horizontal. The heat pipe tube is designed to Φ25 × 410 mm, two wraps of 100 mesh screen, and filling mass of 15 g sodium. The height and thickness of the fins are 13 mm and 1 mm, and the gap distance between two fins is 5 mm. The wall material of the tube container and fins both are stainless steel. In order to compare the impact of the fins on the startup performance of the heat pipe, a plain-tube high-temperature heat pipe without fins which has the same dimensions is also comparatively experimented. The experimental results show that the finned heat pipe can start successfully and its end of condenser behaves bright red color, which is roughly in accordance with the results of the plain-tube heat pipe. The comparative results also show that the startup time of full startup and the temperature difference between evaporator and condenser after fully starting for the finned heat pipe and plain-tube heat pipe are similarly same. However, adding fins in condenser have a great effect on the temperature rise-rate during starting process and the quasi-steady or equilibrium temperature after startup between the results of two heat pipes.