Week 6
Progress
Beginning Week 5, we've had 2 progressive weeks accomplishing everything we hoped to achieve. Despite not receiving the insulation material that we ordered in time, we've managed to test our heat pipe with variable success. Upon receiving the insulator and performing another trial, we will be able to compare the difference that an insulator makes in optimizing heat pipe designs. The center of the heat pipe would not truly be adiabatic if it weren't enclosed by an insulator to begin with. Thus, we look forward to maximizing thermal efficiency this upcoming week.
As for testing this week, we mounted our heat pipe and applied heated air on the evaporating end. By recording the temperature on both ends in 30 second intervals, we were able to gather data and give it life using Excel. Our experiment yielded the following results:
Decisions
As the final report deadline nears, there are a number of things we still need to consider (this is a work in progress):
- We need more trials for accuracy in our measurements.
Given the limited amount of time we had to use the equipment, we were only able to run a single trial. However, considering the time it took to get into the rhythm, we expect to operate at a faster rate this coming week and get more trial runs in.
- Is the mesh copper wick helping the evaporation-condensation cycle?
We are beginning to doubt the addition of the wick. We are going to test without the wick to see if our results differ. The original plan was to have the pipe oriented so that the evaporator end is at the top. However, we've been testing with the evaporator end at the bottom negating the need for the wick. Also, the fact that our wick is wounded up and shoved into the pipe rather than professionally installed along the inner walls is a questionable decision. We plan to make a decision by Week 7.
As we begin to draft our final report, we will have news of finalizing our design in the coming weeks.
Beginning Week 5, we've had 2 progressive weeks accomplishing everything we hoped to achieve. Despite not receiving the insulation material that we ordered in time, we've managed to test our heat pipe with variable success. Upon receiving the insulator and performing another trial, we will be able to compare the difference that an insulator makes in optimizing heat pipe designs. The center of the heat pipe would not truly be adiabatic if it weren't enclosed by an insulator to begin with. Thus, we look forward to maximizing thermal efficiency this upcoming week.
As for testing this week, we mounted our heat pipe and applied heated air on the evaporating end. By recording the temperature on both ends in 30 second intervals, we were able to gather data and give it life using Excel. Our experiment yielded the following results:
Figure 1: Temperature vs. Time Preliminary Trial
As the final report deadline nears, there are a number of things we still need to consider (this is a work in progress):
- We need more trials for accuracy in our measurements.
Given the limited amount of time we had to use the equipment, we were only able to run a single trial. However, considering the time it took to get into the rhythm, we expect to operate at a faster rate this coming week and get more trial runs in.
- Is the mesh copper wick helping the evaporation-condensation cycle?
We are beginning to doubt the addition of the wick. We are going to test without the wick to see if our results differ. The original plan was to have the pipe oriented so that the evaporator end is at the top. However, we've been testing with the evaporator end at the bottom negating the need for the wick. Also, the fact that our wick is wounded up and shoved into the pipe rather than professionally installed along the inner walls is a questionable decision. We plan to make a decision by Week 7.
As we begin to draft our final report, we will have news of finalizing our design in the coming weeks.
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