Applied Thermal Engineering 83 (2015) 88e97

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research paper

Steady-state modeling and analysis of a loop heat pipe under

gravity-assisted operation
Lizhan Bai a, *, Jinghui Guo a, Guiping Lin a, Jiang He b, Dongsheng Wen c
a

Laboratory of Fundamental Science on Ergonomics and Environmental Control, School of Aeronautic Science and Engineering, Beihang University,
Beijing 100191, PR China
b
Beijing Key Laboratory of Space Thermal Control Technology, Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering, Beijing 100094, PR China
c
School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

h i g h l i g h t s

Steady-state model of a LHP under gravity-assisted operation has been established.

Two driving modes have been identied and theoretically analyzed.

Operating temperature curve of LHP exhibits unique trend under gravity-driven mode.

Positive elevation has great effect on LHP performance under gravity-driven mode.

Enhanced cooling and reduced heat leak to the CC lead to better LHP performance.

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 12 November 2014
Accepted 13 March 2015
Available online 21 March 2015

Loop heat pipes (LHPs) are efcient two-phase heat transfer devices that have found many space and
terrestrial applications. This work addresses our insufcient understanding of LHP operation under
gravity-assisted attitude, i.e. the condenser is located higher than the evaporator. A steady-state mathematical model of a LHP under gravity-assisted operation was established based on two driving modes:
gravity driven mode and capillarity-gravity co-driven mode, determined by a dened transition heat
load. The model was validated by the experimental results, and was employed to predict the operating
characteristics of a LHP under the gravity-assisted attitude. Comparing to LHPs operating under horizontal or antigravity attitudes, some distinctive features have been identied, which include: i) the total
mass owrate in the loop shows a unique V-shape with the increase of applied heat load; ii) the steadystate operating temperature is much lower under the gravity driven mode, and is in similar values under
capillarity-gravity co-driven mode and iii) the thermal conductance of the LHP increases with increasing
positive elevation especially in the variable conductance zone. Such results contribute greatly to the
understanding of the complicated operating principle and characteristics of LHPs especially for terrestrial
applications.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Loop heat pipe
Mathematical model
Driving mode
Operating characteristics
Experiment

1. Introduction
Loop heat pipes (LHPs) are effective and efcient two-phase
heat transfer devices that utilize the evaporation and condensation of a working uid to transfer heat, and the capillary forces
developed in ne porous wicks to circulate the working uid [1,2].
Their high pumping capability and superior heat transport performance have been traditionally utilized to address the thermal-

* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: 86 10 8233 8600.

E-mail address: bailizhan@buaa.edu.cn (L. Bai).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.03.014
1359-4311/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

management problems of spacecraft, and they were successfully

applied in many space tasks [3e7]. More recently, its application
has been extended to terrestrial surroundings such as in electronics
cooling [8e11] and thermal-management systems for aircraft and
submarines [12e15]. Their long distance heat transport capability
and exibility in design could offer many advantages compared
with traditional heat pipes and other heat transfer devices.
So far, quite a few studies on the mathematical modeling of LHPs
have been conducted, which revealed some working principles and
operating characteristics of LHPs [16e23], as briey reviewed
below. Kaya et al. [16] established a one-dimensional steady-state

L. Bai et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 83 (2015) 88e97

mathematical model of a LHP, which could reect the variable

conductance characteristics of the LHP, but the oversimplication
in calculating the radial conductance of the wick and two-phase
pressure drop in the condenser brought large difference between
the modeling and experimental results. Improved treatment on the
two-phase pressure drop in the condenser was conducted by
Hoang et al. [17], where ve different two-phase pressure drop
correlations were assessed and better predictions were achieved.
The modeling of the radial conductance of the evaporator wick was
improved by Parker [18] through solving a radial one-dimensional
energy equation, in which the effect of the uid convection was
considered. Chuang et al. [19] developed a comprehensive steadystate model, which showed good predictions when the evaporator was horizontal with or higher than the condenser, but large
deviation from the experimental results was observed under the
gravity-assisted attitude. Further improvement was attempted by
Vlassov et al. [20] where the liquid/vapor interface in the condenser
and the void fraction in the compensation chamber (CC) could be
determined. Bai et al. [21] developed a steady-state mathematical
model of a LHP by considering the evaporator wick as either singlelayer or two-layer composite structures, and the condenser having
the annular ow pattern. The effects of surface tension of liquid and
the interaction between the liquid and vapor phases in the
condenser including both frictional and momentum-transfer shear
stresses were considered. The model revealed the observed thermal conductance reduction phenomena when LHPs operated in the
constant conductance zone, which cannot be reected by traditional models. Fang et al. [22] conducted a numerical analysis based
on a two-dimensional dynamic mesh model to investigate the inuence of non-uniform heat load on the performance of a at-plate
evaporator LHP. The variations of evaporation heat transfer coefcient, outow working uid temperature, vapor and liquid interface position and surface temperature at different heat loads were
analyzed. A mathematical model of the startup process of a LHP
was established by Bai et al. [23] based on the node network
method, and a parametric analysis including the effects of startup
heat load, thermal capacity of the evaporator and CC, heat sink
temperature and ambient temperature on the startup characteristics of the LHP were conducted.
To the best of our knowledge, the mathematical models presented above are only applicable to the situation when the LHP is
under horizontal or antigravity attitudes. When the LHP is operating under the gravity-assisted attitude, i.e. the condenser is
located higher than the evaporator, large deviation will exist between the modeling and experimental results. Chuang et al. [24]
conducted an experimental and analytical study of a loop heat
pipe at a positive elevation using neutron radiography. The change
of the liquid/vapor distribution and ow pattern in the vapor
transport line under the gravity-assisted attitude was captured by
the employment of the non-destructive visualization technique.
Experimental results showed that when the LHP was operating
under the gravity-assisted attitude, the operating temperature
exhibited unique variation trend, and the authors proposed a
gravity-assisted operating theory, which categorized the steadystate operation into capillary-controlled and gravity-controlled
modes to better explain the observed experimental phenomena.
However, theoretical investigation on the LHP operation under
the gravity-assisted attitude is quite limited and obviously inadequate so far, i.e. in the experimental and analytical study of Ref [24],
the positive elevation range is quite small (0e127 mm), and the
heat sink temperature is set as a xed value of 5  C, which cannot
reect the unique characteristics at a relatively large positive
elevation and lower heat sink temperature; in addition, how the
transition heat load separating the LHP operation into the capillarycontrolled and gravity-controlled modes changes with operating

89

parameters such as the positive elevation and heat sink temperature is still not well understood. With the rapid development of LHP
application in terrestrial surroundings, it is of great interest to
establish an accurate mathematical model of LHPs operating under
the gravity-assisted attitude to better understand its operating
principle and characteristics and guide the engineering design,
which forms the objective of this study.
2. Mathematical modeling
2.1. Two driving modes
When the LHP is operating under horizontal or antigravity attitudes, the capillary force generated by the evaporator wick is the
driving source for the circulation of the working uid in the loop.
However, when the LHP is operating under the gravity-assisted attitude, the situation becomes much different and very complicated.
As reviewed above, two driving modes have been identied
under the gravity-assisted attitude [24,25]: gravity-driven mode
and capillarity-gravity co-driven mode, depending on the applied
heat load. At a small heat load, the LHP tends to operate in the
gravity-driven mode where the gravity is the only driving source
for the circulation of the working uid. Under such a condition, the
working uid in the vapor line is in the two-phase state due to the
existence of additional liquid mass ow, and no clear liquid/vapor
interface exists at the outer surface of the evaporator wick, as
shown in Fig. 1(a). At a relatively large heat load, the LHP operates
in the capillarity-gravity co-driven mode, where the capillary force
and gravity are both driving sources for the circulation of the
working uid. Under this condition, the working uid in the vapor
line is pure vapor, and there is a clear liquid/vapor interface at the
outer surface of the evaporator wick, as shown in Fig. 1(b).
2.2. Determination of the transition heat load
To realize the steady-state modeling of a LHP under gravityassisted operation, the rst and most important step is to determine the transition heat load (Qtr), i.e. the heat load responsible for
the transition from the gravity driven mode to capillarity-gravity
co-driven model. With the transition heat load applied to the
evaporator, the working uid in the vapor line is pure vapor, and
the gravitational pressure head generated in the liquid line just
satises the requirement to drive the circulation of the working
uid in the loop, so the pressure balance equation can be expressed
as:

Z
rl gdH DPvg DPvl DPc DPll DPwi

(1)

ll

Because the gravitational pressure head in the liquid line and

the frictional pressure drop in each component of the LHP are both
strong functions of the operating temperature, however, the
steady-state operating temperature is initially unknown, it is
impossible to directly calculate the transition heat load based on
Equation (1). At the same time, it reminds us that the transition
heat load and the steady-state operating temperature should be
obtained simultaneously.
In order to obtain the transition heat load and the operating
temperature simultaneously, a detailed solution owchart is presented in Fig. 2. Below are some introductions to the solution
owchart:
1) Calculation of the heat transfer and pressure drop in each
component of the LHP in Fig. 2 is the same as that in our previous mathematical model [21], and is not repeated here.

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L. Bai et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 83 (2015) 88e97

Z
rl gdH 

where
a

rgdH DPvg DPvl DPc DPll DPwi

(2)

vl

ll

r rv a rl 1  a

xrl
xrl 1  xrv S

(3)
(4)

Generally, the vapor mass owrate in the vapor line in the

gravity driven mode is relatively small, and the ow pattern in the
vapor line is mainly bubbly or slug ow. For simplication purpose,
homogeneous ow model is adopted here, and the slip ratio (S) can
be set as 1.0 accordingly. By substituting Equation (4) into Equation
(3), the average density of the working uid in the vapor line can be
expressed as:

rl rv
xrl 1  xrv

(5)

In the gravity driven mode, as the working uid in the vapor line
is in the two-phase state, the actual mass owrate of the system at
the inlet of the vapor line becomes:

m_ m_ v m_ l

(6)

Based on the energy conservation, the vapor mass owrate at

the inlet of the vapor line can be expressed as:

m_ v

Qap  Qhl  Qhw

l

(7)

The vapor mass owrate is proportional to the heat load applied

to the evaporator at steady-state conditions. Because the pressure
drop in each component is directly related to the mass owrate, the
liquid mass owrate at the inlet of the vapor line naturally adjusts
itself to match the pressure balance as shown in Equation (2) under
a steady-state condition.
Because the working uid in the vapor line is in the two-phase
state, the heat transfer between the working uid in the vapor line
and the ambient is in the form of latent heat, and the energy
equation of the vapor line can be expressed as follows by neglecting
the small thermal conduction through the pipe wall:
Fig. 1. Working uid distribution inside LHP for different driving modes.

m_
2) In the solution process, a relatively large heat load is rstly
specied as the transition heat load, which is larger than the
actual one. In general, the specied relatively large heat load can
be simply determined based on the condition that the gravitational pressure head in the liquid line where the liquid is at the
lowest temperature (the heat sink temperature) is equal to the
frictional pressure drop in the vapor line.
3) By decreasing the transition heat load gradually and calculating
the temperature distribution along the loop, the total pressure
drop along the loop will be just balanced by the gravitational
pressure head generated in the liquid line. Under this condition,
the actual transition heat load and the steady-state operating
temperature can be obtained simultaneously.
2.3. Gravity driven mode
When the heat load applied to the evaporator is smaller than the
transition heat load, LHP operates in the gravity driven mode. The
gravitational pressure difference between the liquid line and vapor
line is the driving source for the circulation of the working uid in
the loop, so the pressure balance equation can be expressed as:

dh
G=Lvla T  Ta
dL

(8)

As the enthalpy value depends on the selection of the initial

state at which the enthalpy is zero, the enthalpy of the saturated
liquid with respect to the local pressure is set zero here, and the
enthalpy value of the working uid at different states then can be
expressed as:

8
< l Cpv T  Tsat T > Tsat superheated vapor
lx
h
T Tsat two  phase state
: C T  T
T < Tsat subcooled liquid
sat
pl

(9)

Accordingly, the temperature and vapor quality at different

states can be calculated as:


8
< h  l Cpv Tsat superheated vapor
T
two  phase state
. Tsat
: h C T
subcooled liquid
sat
pl
8
< 1 superheated vapor
x h=l two  phase state
:
0 subcooled liquid

(10)

(11)

L. Bai et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 83 (2015) 88e97

91

Fig. 2. Solution owchart to determine the transition heat load.

For the two-phase ow, the pressure drop in the vapor line
consists of three components: frictional, acceleratory and gravitational pressure drop. Based on the homogeneous ow assumption,
the pressure drop in the vapor line can be expressed as:

8
< fl 16=Re Re<2100
f fl 4000Reft Re2100=1900 2100  Re  4000
:
ft 0:079Re0:25 Re>4000
(14)




 



dPf
dPg
dP
dPa




dL vl
dL vl
dL vl
dL vl
 2
C
m_ dv
rg sin q
t
A
A dL

In the calculation of the Reynolds number, the viscosity of the

working uid is determined as:

m xmv 1  xml
(12)

where

tf

 
1 m_ 2
2r A

(13)

To realize the smooth transition of the frictional factor from

laminar to turbulent ow, the frictional factor is calculated as
follows:

(15)

The calculation method of the pressure drop in the vapor

grooves is the same as that in the vapor line. However, because the
mass owrate of the working uid increases linearly from zero to
the maximum value in the vapor grooves, the vapor groove is
evenly divided into several segments, and the pressure drop in the
vapor grooves is the sum of the pressure drop in each segments:

DPvg

DPvg;i

(16)

For a given heat load, the gravitational pressure difference between the liquid line and vapor line and the pressure drop in each

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L. Bai et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 83 (2015) 88e97

component of the LHP are strong functions of the liquid mass

owrate at the inlet of the vapor line, however, it is initially unknown, so it is impossible to directly calculate the steady-state
operating temperature. Meanwhile, it reminds us that the steadystate operating temperature and the liquid mass owrate at the
inlet of the vapor line should be obtained together.
In order to obtain the steady-state operating temperature and
the liquid mass owrate at the inlet of the vapor line together, a
detailed solution owchart is presented in Fig. 3. Below are some
introductions to the solution owchart:
1) Calculation of the heat transfer and pressure drop in each
component of the LHP except the vapor line is the same as that
in our previous mathematical model [21], and is not repeated
here.
2) In the solution process, rst specify the liquid mass owrate at
the inlet of the vapor line as zero, which is obviously smaller
than the actual value.
3) By increasing the liquid mass owrate at the inlet of the vapor
line gradually and calculating the temperature distribution
along the loop, the total pressure drop along the loop will be just

balanced by the gravitational pressure difference between the

liquid line and vapor line. Under this condition, the steady-state
operating temperature and liquid mass owrate at the inlet of
the vapor line can be obtained together.

2.4. Capillarity-gravity co-driven mode

When the heat load applied to the evaporator is larger than the
transition heat load, LHP operates in the capillarity-gravity codriven mode. Under this driving mode, the working uid in the
vapor line is pure vapor, and the capillary force and gravitational
pressure head generated in the liquid line are both driving sources
for the circulation of the working uid in the loop, so the pressure
balance equation can be expressed as:

Z
rl gdH DPcap DPvg DPvl DPc DPll DPwi

(17)

ll

Under such a mode, the working uid distribution along the

loop is generally the same as that when LHP operates with no

Fig. 3. Model solution owchart for gravity driven mode.

L. Bai et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 83 (2015) 88e97

93

positive elevation, and the calculation of heat transfer and pressure

drop in each component as well as the model solution owchart
has been detailed in our previous mathematical model [21].
3. Experimental validation
3.1. Experimental setup
The experimental LHP was made of stainless steel except that
the wick was made of sintered nickel powder, and Table 1 presents
the basic parameters of the components. In Table 1, OD and ID
represent the outer and inner diameters respectively, and CC represents the compensation chamber. No secondary wick was
employed in the ground tests, and the LHP had a bayonet extending
to the middle point of the evaporator core. Ammonia was selected
as the working uid due to its excellent thermophysical properties
in the temperature range of 0e60  C.
Fig. 4 shows the experimental setup. In the experiments, heat
load applied to the evaporator was provided by a thin-lm electric
heater with the electric resistance of 20U, attached directly to the
evaporator casing symmetrically. The heat load can be adjusted
from 0 W to 300 W by altering the output voltage of the DC power.
The condenser line was mounted on an aluminum cold plate with
imbedded coolant channels. Ethanol was used as the coolant for the
condenser and circulated by a pump through a thermostatic water
trough. The heat sink temperature was maintained at constant
values. The entire loop was thermally insulated with a layer of
sponge to reduce the parasitic heat load from the ambient.
The data acquisition system was composed of a data logger
linked to a PC and the IMPview software, which was used to display
and store the experimental data. Copper/constantan (Type T)
thermocouples (TCs) were used to monitor the temperature prole
along the loop, and the TC locations are shown in Fig. 4. TC1 and
TC14 were attached on the evaporator and CC respectively. The
vapor line was divided into ve equal segments by six TCs (TC2TC7), the condenser line was divided into four equal segments by
three TCs (TC8-TC10), and the liquid line was divided into two equal
segments by three TCs (TC11-TC13). One additional TC was used to
measure the ambient temperature (not shown in Fig. 4). In the
experiment, the maximum measurement error of the thermocouples is 0.5  C, and the uncertainty of the heat load applied to the
evaporator is within 5% in the full range.
During the experiment, rstly adjust the LHP position as expected, then switch on the temperature data acquisition system.
Next the thermostatic water trough was switched on to realize
cooling to the condenser, and the refrigeration temperature was set
as the required heat sink temperature. When the coolant in the
trough dropped to the heat sink temperature, a heat load was
applied to the evaporator to start up the LHP. If the evaporator
temperature variation was less than 0.5  C over 10 min, it can be
Table 1
Basic parameters of the LHP.
Components

Dimensions

OD/ID  Length of Evaporator

OD/ID  Length of Condenser
Vapor/liquid line length
OD/ID of vapor and liquid line
Width/height  number of vapor grooves
Volume of CC
Charge of working uid
Wick
OD/ID  length
Maximum radius
Porosity
Permeability

F18/16  175 mm
F3/2.2  2000 mm
2800/2500 mm
3/2.2 mm
1.5/1.2mm  20
20 ml
29.9 g
16/8  125 mm
1.0 mm
58.7%
>5  1014 m2

Fig. 4. Schematic of the experimental system.

assumed that the LHP achieved the steady state, and then the heat
load was increased to a preset higher level.
3.2. Experimental validation and discussions
The comparison of the modeling results with the experimental
data is shown in Fig. 5 where the operating conditions were
maintained as follows: the ambient temperature was 22 1.0  C,
the heat sink temperature was 20 1.0  C, the CC was vertically
above the evaporator, and the condenser was located 1.0 m higher
than the evaporator, i.e. the positive elevation was 1.0 m.
As shown in Fig. 5(a), the modeling results of the temperature
distribution along the loop are in good agreement with the
experimental data in both the gravity driven mode (Qap 20 W)
and the capillarity-gravity co-driven mode (Qap 200 W), which
conrms the validity of the mathematical model established in this
work. When the LHP is operating in the gravity driven mode
(Qap 20 W), because the working uid in the vapor line is in the
two-phase state, the heat transfer between the working uid and
the ambient is in the form of latent heat, and the working uid
keeps at the saturation temperature when it ows along the vapor
line despite experiencing the ambient heating effect, which is
veried by both the modeling and experimental results. However,
when the LHP is operating in the capillarity-gravity co-driven mode
(Qap 200 W), because the working uid in the vapor line is pure
vapor, the heat transfer between the working uid and the ambient
is in the form of sensible heat, and the working uid temperature
rises continuously along the vapor line due to the ambient heating
effect, as shown in both the modeling and experimental results.
Fig. 5(a) also shows that the experimental temperature at the outlet
of the vapor line (TC7) is lower than the modeling results especially
under the capillarity-gravity co-driven mode (Qap 200 W). This is
due to the heat sink cooling effect through axial heat conduction of
the wall, which is not considered in the mathematical model.
Fig. 5(b) shows the comparison of the heat load dependency of
the operating temperature between the modeling results and
experimental data. Although there exists certain discrepancy in the
operating temperature, the general variation trend of the operating
temperature with increasing heat load is almost the same between
the modeling and experimental results, which indicates that the
basic control equations employed in the mathematical model

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L. Bai et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 83 (2015) 88e97

driving mode, i.e. the gravity driven mode or the capillarity-gravity

co-driven mode, which can be determined by comparing the
applied heat load with the transition heat load. The transition heat
load is inuenced by a variety of factors including the operating
conditions, the LHP structure parameters and the working uid,
where the positive elevation and heat sink temperature are two
main factors. Fig. 6 shows the positive elevation dependency of the
transition heat load at different heat sink temperatures. The operating conditions and structure parameters of the LHP are all the
same as those in Section 3 apart from the positive elevation and the
heat sink temperature.
Fig. 6 shows that the transition heat load increases with the
increase of the positive elevation for a xed heat sink temperature
and keeping other operating conditions unchanged. That is because
the gravitational pressure head generated in the liquid line increases almost linearly with the positive elevation, and increased
mass owrate is needed to cause sufcient frictional pressure drop
to balance the gravitational pressure head, as shown in Equation
(1). Because the transition heat load is nearly proportional to the
mass owrate, it will increase accordingly. It is noted that the
transition heat load rst increases almost linearly with the positive
elevation until it reaches a certain value (i.e., about 40 W in this
study), and the increase slowes down afterwards. This can be
explained by two reasons: i) the pressure drop in the vapor line and
the condenser occupies the major part of the total pressure drop, as
shown in Fig. 7; and ii) the mass owrate in the loop is very small at
low transition heat load, and consequently the ow regime in the
vapor line and the condenser is laminar ow where the frictional
pressure drop is proportional to the mass owrate, However, as the
mass owrate in the loop increases with the transition heat load,
the ow regime becomes turbulent ow where the frictional
pressure drop is almost proportional to the square of the mass
owrate.
Fig. 6 also shows that the effect of heat sink temperature on the
transition heat load is small at low positive elevations. However, at
a high positive elevation, a larger transition heat load is observed at
a higher heat sink temperature. That is because for a comparatively
large transition heat load, the LHP will generally operate in the
constant conductance zone, and a higher heat sink temperature
leads to an increased operating temperature. For ammonia, the
density of the saturated vapor increases notably with the increase

Fig. 5. Comparison of the modeling results with experimental data.

according to the LHP operating principle under the gravity-assisted

attitude should be correct. Based on our analysis, the relatively
large discrepancy most probably lies in inaccurate calculation of the
two-phase pressure drop in the vapor line. Because it is affected by
a variety of factors such as the vapor quality and void fraction of the
working uid as well as the tilt angle of the vapor line; meanwhile
the ow pattern in the vapor line may evolve continuously with
increasing heat load, it is rather difcult to calculate the two-phase
pressure drop in the vapor line accurately, which may cause certain
deviations of the total mass owrate in the loop as well as the
operating temperature, and make a shift of the peak position on the
operating temperature curve under the gravity-driven mode to
some extent.
4. Modeling results and analysis
4.1. Variation of transition heat load
When LHP is operating under the gravity-assisted attitude, its
steady-state operating temperature is strongly dependent on the

Fig. 6. Positive elevation dependency of the transition heat load at different heat sink
temperatures.

L. Bai et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 83 (2015) 88e97

95

of its saturation temperature, and a larger mass owrate will be

needed to generate sufcient frictional pressure drop to balance the
gravitational pressure head generated in the liquid line. Although
the evaporative latent heat of ammonia decreases with the increase
of its saturation temperature, however, the increase of the mass
owrate is dominant, resulting in an increased transitional heat
load eventually.
4.2. Variation of mass owrate
When the LHP is operating under horizontal or antigravity attitudes, the mass owrate in the system is nearly proportional to
the heat load applied to the evaporator considering the small heat
leak from the evaporator to the CC, small heat load for heating the
uid owing through the wick and small variation of the evaporative latent heat of working uid, as shown by Equation (7).
However, when the LHP is operating under the gravity-assisted
attitude, the situation becomes much different. Fig. 8 shows the
variation of the mass owrate with the heat load applied to the
evaporator at the inlet of the vapor line when the LHP is operating
under the gravity-assisted attitude. The operating conditions and
structure parameters of the LHP are all the same as those in Section
3.2. As shown in Fig. 8, when the LHP is operating under the
gravity-assisted attitude, the vapor mass owrate at the inlet of the
vapor line is nearly proportional to the heat load applied to the
evaporator both in the gravity driven mode and the capillaritygravity co-driven mode. While the liquid mass owrate at the
inlet of the vapor line decreases sharply with the heat load applied
to the evaporator in the gravity driven mode, and it reduces to zero
at the transition heat load. In the capillarity-gravity co-driven
mode, the liquid mass owrate at the inlet of the vapor line always
keeps at zero. As a result, in the gravity driven mode, the total mass
owrate in the system rst decreases with increasing heat load
applied to the evaporator until it reaches the lowest value, then it
begins to increase gradually. While in the capillarity-gravity codriven mode, the total mass owrate in the system increases almost
linearly with the heat load applied to the evaporator.
When the LHP is operating in the gravity driven mode, the total
mass owrate is obviously larger than that under the horizontal or
antigravity attitudes for a given applied heat load, due to the
additional liquid mass ow in the vapor line, and the cooling of the

Fig. 8. Heat load dependency of the mass owrate at the inlet of the vapor line.

return liquid to the CC is enhanced considerably as expressed by

Equation (18):



_ pl Tcc  Tcc;in
Qsub mC

(18)

As shown in Equation (18), in the gravity driven mode, rst, the

total mass owrate increases obviously; second, the increased mass
owrate in the liquid line could inhibit the temperature rise due to
ambient heating effect when the working uid ows along the
liquid line and decrease the working uid temperature at the inlet
of the CC. Both the reasons above contribute to enhanced cooling of
the return liquid to the CC. Meanwhile, as the pressure of the
working uid in the CC is almost the same as that in the evaporator,
the saturation temperature difference between the evaporator and
the CC becomes rather small, resulting in a reduced radial heat leak
from the evaporator to the CC. Both enhanced cooling and reduced
heat leak to the CC will result in a much lower steady-state operating temperature. Experimental results conrmed the analysis
above. As shown in Fig. 9, when the LHP is operating in the gravity
driven mode, the steady-state operating temperature is much
lower than that under the horizontal or antigravity attitudes;
whereas when the LHP is operating in the capillarity-gravity codriven mode, it is only slightly lower than that under the horizontal
or antigravity attitudes.
4.3. Steady-state operating temperature at different positive
elevations

Fig. 7. Pressure drop in each component at the transition heat load.

Fig. 10 shows the heat load dependency of the steady-state

operating temperature of the LHP at different positive elevations.
In the model, the ambient temperature is set as 22  C, and the heat
sink temperature is set as 20  C. The structure parameters of the
LHP are all the same as those in Section 3.
When the LHP is operating under the gravity-assisted attitude,
the steady-state operating temperature curve is no longer the
classical V-shape, but exhibits some unique trends due to the existence of two driving modes. It is easy to nd that the higher the
positive elevation, the larger the transition heat load, which is in
good agreement with the results in Fig. 6. In the gravity driven
mode, the steady-state operating temperature rstly increases until
it reaches a peak value, then it begins to drop gradually. The steadystate operating temperature is signicantly lower at a higher

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L. Bai et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 83 (2015) 88e97

zone where the thermal conductance changes within a rather

narrow range. However, signicant difference can be observed in
the variable conductance zone, and a distinctive peak is clearly seen
in the variable conductance zone under large positive elevations.
The positive elevation has larger inuence on the thermal
conductance under the gravity driven mode than that under the
capillarity-gravity co-driven mode. Such results are in agreement
with those in Section 4.3.
5. Conclusions
A steady-state mathematical model of a LHP under gravityassisted operation was established based on two driving modes:
gravity driven mode and capillarity-gravity co-driven mode. The
modeling results show good agreement with the experimental
data. Based on the model, the operating principle and characteristics of the LHP under gravity-assisted attitude were investigated,
and the main conclusions include:
Fig. 9. Experimental results of steady-state operating temperature under different
attitudes.

positive elevation. However, the effect of positive elevation on the

steady-state operating temperature under the capillarity-gravity
co-driven mode is not salient, which is closely associated with
the variation of the total mass owrate in the system as discussed in
Section 4.2.
4.4. Thermal conductance at different positive elevations
Fig. 11 shows the heat load dependency of the thermal
conductance of the LHP at different positive elevations where the
thermal conductance is dened as:


G Qap Te  Ts

(19)

The operating conditions and structure parameters of the LHP

are all the same as those in Section 4.3. Similar to the situation
when LHPs operate under horizontal or antigravity attitudes, there
are also two zones when the LHP is operating under the gravityassisted attitude: the variable conductance zone where the thermal conductance keeps changing, and the constant conductance

Fig. 10. Steady-state operating temperature at different positive elevations.

Under the gravity-assisted attitude, a transition heat load (Qtr) is

dened to distinguish the two driving modes in LHP operation,
i.e. LHPs would operate under the gravity driven mode when the
applied heat load is smaller than the transition heat load;
otherwise, LHPs would operate under the capillarity-gravity codriven mode.

With other operating conditions unchanged, the transition heat
load rst increases almost linearly with the positive elevation;
when it reaches a certain value, it begins to increase slowly.

For LHPs operating under the gravity driven mode, the total
mass owrate in the loop exhibits a unique V-shape with the
increase of applied heat load, which differs signicantly to LHPs
operating under horizontal or antigravity attitudes.

Comparing to LHPs under horizontal or antigravity attitudes,
when LHPs operate under the gravity-assisted attitude, the
steady-state operating temperature was much lower under the
gravity driven mode due to reduced heat leak from the evaporator to the CC and enhanced cooling of the return liquid, and
was in similar values under the capillarity-gravity co-driven
mode.

Under the gravity driven mode, the positive elevation has signicant effect on the steady-state operating temperature and

Fig. 11. Thermal conductance at different positive elevations.

L. Bai et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 83 (2015) 88e97

thermal conductance of the LHP: the higher the positive

elevation, the lower the operating temperature and the larger
the thermal conductance; whereas the effect was negligible
under the capillarity-gravity co-driven mode.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by Beijing Natural Science Foundation
(No.3144031), the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(No.51306009) and the EU Marie Curie Actions-International
Incoming Fellowships (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF-626576).
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Nomenclature
A: cross sectional area (m2)
C: perimeter (m)
Cp: specic heat (J/kg K)
f: frictional factor
g: gravitational acceleration (m/s2)
G: thermal conductance (W/K)
(G/L): thermal conductance per unit length (W/K m)
h: enthalpy (J/kg)
H: height (m)
L: length (m)
_ mass owrate (kg/s)
m:
P: pressure (Pa)perimeter (m)
Q: heat load (W)
S: slip ratio
T: temperature ( C)
v: specic volume (m3/kg)
x: thermodynamic vapor quality
Greek symbols

a: void fraction
l: latent heat (J/kg)
t: shear stress (Pa)
r: density (kg/m3)
m: dynamic viscosity (Pa s)
q: tilt angle
Subscript
a: ambient or acceleration
ap: applied
c: condenser
cc: compensation chamber
cap: capillary
e: evaporator or evaporation
f: friction
g: gravity
hl: heat leak
hw: heating the uid in the wick
in: inlet
l: liquid or laminar
ll: liquid line
sub: subcooling or subcooled
sat: saturation
t: turbulent
v: vapor
vg: vapor groove
vl: vapor line
vl-a: vapor line and the ambient
wi: wick