Pseudo-3D Modeling of Grooved Heat Pipes with Arbitrary Groove Geometries

Abstract

In this study, the geometric function that governs the hydraulic conductance of the liquid phase in grooved heat pipes is reformulated as a function of the edge angle. In the H-PAT (Heat pipe analysis toolbox) model, the geometric function is assumed to be constant within each axial slice, which limits the physical accuracy of the hydraulic prediction by neglecting the axial variation of the meniscus shape. To overcome this limitation, the momentum equation is reduced to a Poisson’s form and solved in COMSOL under zero-flux boundary conditions for a range of edge angle values, yielding scaled liquid velocity fields. Surface integrals of these fields are then used to compute the edge-angle-dependent geometric function, which is subsequently integrated into the slice-based flow model of H-PAT. The enhanced model is validated against experimental data. Wall temperature predictions remain nearly identical to those of the H-PAT and accurately reproduce the experimental trends. However, the edge angle distributions exhibit noticeable differences, with the enhanced model capturing the axial variation of meniscus curvature more realistically. The results demonstrate that modeling the geometric function as a function of edge angle provides a more physically consistent representation of hydraulic conductance and improves the predictive capability of H-PAT.