Energy 39 (2012) 82e89

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Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Experimental investigation of a thermosyphon based heat exchanger used

in energy efcient air handling units
Hussam Jouharaa, b, *, Hasnain Merchantb
a
b

Nuclear Engineering Department, Atomic Energy Commission, P.O. Box 6091, Damascus, Syria
School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 3 May 2011
Received in revised form
2 August 2011
Accepted 30 August 2011
Available online 22 September 2011

In the 20th Century many buildings became totally dependent on fossil fuel energy to make them
habitable. Recent legislation and building regulations, however, ensure that designers are contracted to
aim for zero carbon sustainability or buildings which function with much lower levels of fossil fuel
dependency.
Heat pipe technology has found increasing applications in the building service industry in recent
years; particularly in enhancing the thermal performance of heat exchangers and increasing energy
savings in commercial HVAC systems. In this paper, an experimental investigation of the thermal
performance of an angled aireair heat pipe heat exchanger, which utilizes thermosyphon technology,
will be presented. A thermosyphon is a particular type of heat pipe which relies on gravity assistance for
its operation.
In this paper, the investigated heat exchanger utilizes nine thermosyphons in a modied inline
conguration lled with water as the working uid and having nned evaporator and condenser
sections. Different sets of experimental tests were carried out by varying the heat load as well as the
inclination angle of the heat exchanger. The values of the overall effectiveness and thermal resistance of
the heat pipe heat exchanger are shown to vary with the air ow rate, as expected, but the results also
allow the prediction of effectiveness variation with the variation of the operating temperature. The paper
also includes a performance model for predicting the effectiveness of the thermosyphon based heat
exchanger under test, developed using empirical mathematical correlations.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Thermosyphon
Heat exchanger
Effectiveness

1. Introduction
Thermosyphons are devices that transfer heat by the process of
evaporation and condensation of a uid circulating in a sealed
cavity which can have a variety of sizes and congurations. Heat
pipes are often referred to as thermal super conductors or thermal
short circuits because they can transfer heat at high rates over
relatively large distances with only small temperature differences
between the heat input and heat output zones [1]. A heat pipe or
thermosyphon operates when a temperature difference is imposed
across its ends. The warmer end becomes the evaporator section
where the liquid evaporates or boils by absorbing the latent heat
from the heat source. The vapour then ows to the cooler end of the

* Corresponding author. Nuclear Engineering Department, Atomic Energy

Commission, P.O. Box 6091, Damascus, Syria. Tel.: 963 11 2132580; fax: 963
6111926/7.
E-mail addresses: scientic5@aec.org.sy, pscientic@aec.org.sy (H. Jouhara).
0360-5442/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.energy.2011.08.054

pipe where it condenses and gives up its latent heat; this end of the
pipe becomes the condenser section. In this way heat is transferred
from the warmer to the cooler end of the pipe and as only latent
heat is being transferred this occurs at a practically constant
temperature. The condensed vapour ows back to the evaporator
section under gravity or capillary action (if an internal wick structure is included), which closes the cycle.
In recent years heat pipe technology has been successfully
applied in many elds such as adsorption refrigeration [2],
computer systems [3,4], water heater systems [5], nuclear sea water
desalination [6,7], ground source heat pumps [8] and space applications [9,10].
A Heat Pipe Heat Exchanger (HPHE) can be dened as an air to
air heat exchanger similar to a liquid-coupled indirect-transfer type
heat exchanger except that the HPHE uses no conventional pump
equipment and circulation relies only on the evaporation and
condensation of the working uid. Pumped heat exchangers rely on
the intermediate, circulating liquids temperature increasing and
decreasing as heat is absorbed and released [11]. When compared

H. Jouhara, H. Merchant / Energy 39 (2012) 82e89

to rotary regenerators and plate type heat exchangers, HPHE offer

advantages in terms of cost and size reduction. HPHE provide
a great deal of reliability as they have no moving parts or supplementary power requirements, they also eliminate any danger of
cross-contamination as the high and low temperature air streams
are completely separated. A major advantage of the HPHE is that
the rate of heat transferred can be controlled by the tilt angle.
Being constructed from a multitude of individual, hermetically
sealed pipes, the HPHE will still be operational if one individual
heat pipe fails as hence is very robus. The HPHE requires no
external power to circulate the working uid and heat can be
transferred in either direction, by eliminating the wick and using
a commercial refrigerant as the working uid a heat pipe heat
exchanger can be viewed as a commercially attractive option.
Recently, many investigations have been carried out to understand and quantify energy and cost savings. These include precooling of fresh air and reheating of overcooled air, solar water
heating systems and heat recovery from automobile systems
[5,12e18].
A heat pipe heat exchanger was designed, constructed and
tested under relatively low temperature operating conditions of
15  Ce35  C [1]. The results showed that the minimum heat
transfer rate achieved by the heat pipe is well above the required
heat transfer rate, and that the effectiveness of the heat pipe heat
exchanger could be increased by increasing the number or rows of
tubes in the direction of air ow. The pipes tested were tted with
continuous ns to increase the heat transfer surface area on the
airside in order to maximize the performance.
In ventilation systems, outside air entering buildings can be precooled or preheated using the return air from the building through
the incorporation of a heat pipe heat exchanger [12,13,15,19]. Wu [17]
applied the bundle of heat pipes in an actual air conditioning system
and the effects of preheating and pre-cooling were examined; it was
observed that the cooling capacity of the system was increased by
almost 30% after the incorporation of the heat pipe bundle.
Various investigations have been carried out to understand the
effect on the performance of heat pipe heat exchangers of different
heat exchanger parameters and varying operating conditions
[1,19e21]. Wadowski et al. [22] investigated the effectiveness of
gravity assisted air to air heat exchangers and concluded that
a minimum temperature difference between two air streams is
required in order to initiate operation. As the full operational power

83

is approached the effectiveness becomes independent of the

temperature difference between the two streams. The NTU-
approach was used to analyze a coaxial heat pipe heat exchanger
and the design procedure was presented by Azad and Geoola [23]
and models for heat transfer resistances in heat pipes are given.
Azad [24] carried out a theoretical study on the thermal performance of a circular nned heat pipe heat recovery system to predict
the temperature distribution in the longitudinal rows both for
evaporator and condenser sections of the heat recovery system.
Jouhara [25,26] demonstrated that by using the heat pipe heat
exchanger in a air conditioning system the outside air is cooled and
dehumidied prior to being supplied direct to the occupied space
for ventilation. The energy and cost saving benets are maximized
when treating air that is both hot and moisture laden.
Although the operation of a heat pipe is simple, its appropriate
design and construction is very involved. Since numerous parameters must be controlled, experimental investigations are vital in
order to optimise performance. One of the main aims of this
investigation is to develop a test rig capable of adequately
demonstrating the heat pipe effect and quantifying the thermal
performance of this type of heat pipe heat exchanger against
a range of conditions. Quantication of heat pipe performance is
best undertaken using the concept of heat exchanger effectiveness.
Different sets of experimental results are obtained by varying the
inclination angle of the heat exchanger as well as the heat load. A
performance model for predicting the effectiveness of the heat pipe
heat exchanger with particular congurations is also developed
using empirical correlations.
2. Test facility design
Fig. 1 illustrates the experimental test rig used in the investigation. Fig. 2 shows the image of the actual rotating heat pipe heat
exchanger used for the experimental procedure. The heat pipe heat
exchangers dimensions are shown in Fig. 3.
The heat exchanger consists of a number of thermosyphons
arranged in a modied inline conguration. The design of the test
rig is based on the concept of using extract warm air to heat fresh
air entering the building. According to building regulations,
depending on the number of people and size of the room, the
number of air changes per hour is set to maintain the required
comfort levels. With the introduction of the HPHE in the

Fig. 1. 3D View of test rig.

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H. Jouhara, H. Merchant / Energy 39 (2012) 82e89

Fig. 2. Actual test rig used for investigation.

conventional cooling system pre-cooling or reheating can be achieved thereby providing substantial cost and energy savings.
The thermosyphon heat exchanger test piece is xed on
a rotating mechanism which can be clamped at different angles to
conduct experiments at various inclinations and understand its
impact on the effectiveness of the heat exchanger.

Hot air in the evaporator section was supplied through the

galvanized ductwork using three 500 W heaters placed between
the axial fan and the evaporator section. The use of electric heaters
acts as a simple and accurate method to measure the rate at which
heat is added to the airstream using an in line wattmeter. The
electrical input to the heaters is controlled using a variable voltage

Fig. 3. Top view of rig.

H. Jouhara, H. Merchant / Energy 39 (2012) 82e89

transformer (variac). This method is used to test the thermosyphons effectiveness when exposed to air owing at a range of
different temperatures. Between the heaters and heating elements,
radiation shields are placed which provides a line of sight barrier
between the hot electric elements and the plane in which
temperature is measured.
Fig. 4 explains the ow of air in the sections of the heat
exchanger. An axial fan is installed on one end of the galvanized
ductwork in each section such that counter ow of air is obtained
across the heat exchanger. To ensure no mixing of air streams at the
ends of the heat exchanger during the experimental procedure,
exible ducts are attached thereby ensuring the required inlet
temperatures at each section. The air velocity was measured using
a VelociCalc Plus thermal Anemometer (Model 8386A, of 3.0% of
reading) which uses a single probe and multiple sensors. During the
experimental procedure, the velocity of air was measured at the
centre of the duct. The velocity of air was measured for each
section.
K-Type Thermocouple probes were used in the heat exchanger
to measure the inlet and outlet temperatures. The air temperatures
at the inlet and outlet for each section are measured 160 mm away
from the heat pipe heat exchanger centre.
The temperature readings from the thermocouples are obtained
using a 32 Channel data logging device Datalogger-Datascan 7220
which can be operated using LABTECH CONTROL Build Time software. A real-time vision screen was developed for the software
which indicates the temperatures at various points in the heat
exchanger. The thermocouples are positioned to measure the
thermosyphon surface temperatures. Each individual heat pipe is
instrumented at the centre of the condenser, evaporator and
adiabatic section.
3. Test piece design
The heat pipe test piece, shown in Fig. 4, consists of nine thermosyphons within the block. To increase the secondary n area, the
tube bank is expanded into continuous wavy aluminium ns. The
ns thickness used is 0.2 mm and they are spaced at 2 mm. Before
being charged, the pipes in the tube bank were cleaned thoroughly
with acetone to remove any traces of uid, grease or oil from the
inner surface. Each thermosyphon was then lled using a glass
syringe with working uid lling half the evaporator section. The
heat exchanger consists of nine thermosyphons that were 1 m long

85

with 15.9 mm outside diameter and 14.9 mm inside diameter. At

the top and bottom of each row, the tubes were connected to
a header. The top headers were connected to a tube with a valve for
purging of non-condensable gases. Each thermosyphon is charged
and sealed individually using water as the working uid.
4. Data reduction
An accurate experimental determination of the thermal
performance of the thermosyphon heat exchanger requires accurate measurement of the temperatures of the air ow and surface
temperatures at different sections of the heat exchanger, as well as
the power transferred along the heat exchanger length.
Characterizing the evaporator and condenser temperature is
a relatively straightforward task and is done by averaging the
temperature measurements along the respective sections at regular
intervals of time. The energy added and removed at the evaporator
and condenser respectively was determined by performing an
energy balance across the sections such that,


Qh mh Cph Te;i  Te;o

(1)


Qc mc Cpc Tc;o  Tc;i

(2)

The mass ow rate at each section is calculated using the

velocity measurement from the ducts and given as

p$A
4

$n

(3)

The effective overall thermal resistance of the heat pipe was

calculated using the electrical analogy in the form:

RH:P

Te  Tc
QH:P

(4)

The effectiveness of the heat exchanger was calculated using the

following equation:

Q
Qmax

(5)

5. Thermosyphon heat exchanger effectiveness model

Using explicit equations, a numerical effectiveness model can be
developed which will predict the effectiveness and pressure loss of
the heat exchanger. According to Faghri [11] the analysis of HPHE is
done as two separate heat exchangers coupled by the heat pipe
working uid which is similar to a liquid-coupled indirect-transfer
heat exchanger. The effectiveness of the evaporator and condenser
sections of the heat pipe heat exchanger are thus given by

e 1  eNTUe

(6)

c 1  eNTUc

(7)

where the number of transfer units (NTU) has the following values
for the evaporator and condenser sections:

Fig. 4. Isometric view of thermosyphon test piece.

NTUe

Ue A e
Ce

(8)

NTUc

Uc Ac
Cc

(9)

For a heat exchanger with a number of rows of thermosyphons

the areas Ae and Ac, used in NTU calculation, are based on the total

86

H. Jouhara, H. Merchant / Energy 39 (2012) 82e89

heat transfer area in a row or a stage. The heat transfer area for
a nned pipe is calculated using a method based on Incorpera et al.
[27] and Shah [28].
For the evaporator and condenser sections the following apply:

1
1

Rhp
ho;e $he $Ahp
Ue Ae

(10)

1
1

Rhp
ho;c $hc $Ahp
Uc A c

(11)

To calculate the efciency of the ns, the approximation method

proposed by Schmidt [29] is used. It should be noted that for
calculating the external resistance in both sections, the area is
based on a single nned thermosyphon. The outside heat transfer
coefcient is calculated using the maximum mass velocity. The
correlation for the colburn factor (j) is obtained from Webb et al.
[30]. The internal resistances within the thermosyphon are determined by following the performance calculation given in ESDU
[31]. The thermal resistances that occur at the vapoureliquid
interface in the evaporator and the condenser respectively are
neglected as they are exceedingly small.
Further, Faghri [11] adds that for an individual heat pipe the
effectiveness is dened as


p

min

C

max

(12)

where min & max are the minimum and maximum values of h and
c. As for the heat capacity ratio C*, it is given as:

C

Cmin
Cmax

(13)

The effectiveness of a multistage heat pipe heat exchanger in

counter ow is given as

C

(14)

In this case C* is the capacity ratio of the uid streams on one

side of the heat pipe (i.e. the ratio of the air ow capacity to the heat
pipe working uid capacity). If the heat pipe is assumed almost
isothermal within its walls, then its capacity will be close to innity
and the capacity ratio will be equal to zero. The superscript n
refers to the number of rows of heat pipes in the direction of air
ow.
Hence the heat transfer rate (Q) is calculated as

Q $Qmax

8. Error analysis
The main source of uncertainty for the calculated effectiveness
values in Equation (5) came from the temperature measurements
of Th,i, Tc,i and Tc,o, which were measured using K-type thermocouples (NiCr/NiAl) and a data logger (DataScan). The uncertainties
associated with the temperature readings are estimated to be
(0.05% rdg 0.3  C).
The propagation of uncertainties associated with the calculated
effectiveness values (Se) can be calculated from:

v
!2
!2
u
u ST T
STh;i Tc;i
c;o
c;i
t
S $

Tc;o  Tc;i
Th;i  Tc;i

(20)

where

STh;o Tc;i

(16)
(17)

The outlet temperatures for the evaporator and condenser

section are obtained from the following equations

Tc;o Tc;i

Although thermosyphons are very efcient heat transfer

devices, they are subject to a number of heat transfer limitations.
Various types of operating limits that may occur in a thermosyphon
are vapour pressure limit, sonic limit, dry-out limit, boiling limit
and counter-current ow limit. The type of limitation that restricts
the operation of the thermosyphon is determined by the one which
has the lowest value of heat transfer rate at a specic thermosyphon working temperature [31]. For the inclination of 90 and
working uid as water, the investigated operating limits are sonic,
boiling, entrainment and counter-current ow limit. Using the
explicit equations given in ESDU [31] the operating limits are
plotted for the working range of 20  Ce60  C. As seen from Fig. 5
with the operating range under investigation none of the operating limit are encountered which would have caused the thermosyphon to stop functioning.

q
S2Tc;o S2Tc;i : the error associated with (Tc,oTc,i)
q

S2Th;o S2Tc;i : the error associated with (Th,iTc,i)

STc;o Tc;i


Cmin te;i  tc;i



Cmin te;i  tc;i

Th;o Th;i 

7. Operating limits

(15)

where,

Qmax

In order to obtain the surface temperature of heat pipes in the

evaporator and condenser sections for the numerical model, an
iterative thermal balancing technique is used between the evaporator and condenser sections. The known parameters that are used
for the iterative process are the inlet temperatures in the condenser
and evaporator, air ow rates and physical parameters of the heat
exchanger. In the iterative procedure it is assumed that the total
heat transferred in the heat exchanger is shared equally by each
heat pipe. The iteration is based on the principle of conservation of
energy according to which the amount of energy entering the
evaporator is equal to the amount that has been given out in the
condenser section, neglecting any small losses in the adiabatic
section.

n

1
p
1
1  p


n
1  C  p
C 
1  p

Qmax

6. Thermal balancing

q
Ch

(18)

q
Cc

(19)

As for the air velocity, it was measured using a hot wire probe
(VelociCalc Plus 8386) which gave velocity measurements with
uncertainty of 3% rdg. By calculating S from Equation (20), for the
experimental range, the following table of results is obtained:

Effectiveness

Maximum error

Maximum error (%)

0.2769
0.2574
0.2381
0.2060

0.01390
0.01407
0.02353
0.02596

5.021
5.466
9.885
10.120

H. Jouhara, H. Merchant / Energy 39 (2012) 82e89

87

Fig. 5. Operating limits.

As it can be seen from the above table, the maximum experimental uncertainty associated with the obtained effectiveness
values, calculated using Equation (5) is around 10%, which is an
acceptable uncertainty value in engineering applications.
9. Results
A series of tests were performed in order to investigate the
thermal performance of the heat pipe heat exchanger. The heat
pipe tests were conducted at ve different inclination angles
ranging from 0 to 90 with an increment of 22.5 each. The
temperature range across the evaporator section is covered
between the ranges from 29  C to 57  C by varying the load across
the heater via the variable transformer. For the condenser section,
air at ambient temperature in the lab facility and xed mass ow
rate is used. The air mass ow rate into the condenser section had
the same value as that into the evaporator section in all tests.
The experimental procedure for each heat exchanger was
carried out by initially setting the variac at 50% (i.e. 0.75 kW) power
input and positioning the heat exchanger at 90 with the condenser
section on the top. Readings for these settings were taken for
10 min after steady state conditions were achieved. The steady state
was achieved by running the rig for 15 min at the particular variac
setting and inclination and hence ensuring that no variation in

performance was observed during operation. The inclination of the

heat exchanger was changed to 67.5 , 45 , 22.5 and 0 and the
entire experimental procedure was repeated for 75% and 100%
variac settings. Figs. 6,7 and 8 show the variation of temperatures
across the heat pipe heat exchanger for different angles at heater
loads of 1.5 kW, 1.125 kW and 0.75 kW respectively. The resulting
data show that the heat exchanger provides optimal performance
at 90 inclination angle for all heat loads. This nding is to be expected due to the reduced resistance to the return of condensate to
the evaporator section at higher angles. By observing the temperature variations across the condenser and evaporator section it can
be shown that the heat pipe heat exchanger exhibits a nearly
isothermal behaviour, which is a convenient indicator of correct
heat pipe operation.
In order to develop an understanding of the performance of the
thermosyphon heat exchanger, the performance is quantied in
terms of effectiveness. This is dened as the ratio of the rate at
which heat is transferred by the heat pipe to the maximum theoretical rate. As the mass ow rates of air are almost identical across
the evaporator and condenser section the heat capacity rates are
equal and cancel out, as a result, the effectiveness is equal to the
rate of heat transfer across the condenser (or across the evaporator)
divided by the maximum theoretical heat transfer rate. Therefore
the effectiveness is given by

Fig. 6. Temperatures across HPHE vs inclination angle (degrees) at 1.5 kw heater load.

88

H. Jouhara, H. Merchant / Energy 39 (2012) 82e89

Fig. 7. Temperatures across HPHE vs inclination angle (degrees) at 1.125 kw heater

load.
Fig. 10. Comparison of experimental & predicted effectiveness at different evaporator
inlet temperature.


th;o  th;i

or :

th;i  tc;i

Fig. 8. Temperatures across HPHE vs inclination angle (degrees) at 0.75 kw heater

load.

Q
Qmax





mCp tc;o  tc;i
tc;o  tc;i






mCp th;i  tc;i

th;i  tc;i

Fig. 9. Effectiveness vs inclination angle (degrees).

(21)

(22)

(Th,iTc,i) represents the maximum theoretical temperature rise

or drop as it is based on the maximum and minimum air temperatures prevailing on the heat pipe heat exchanger. To calculate the
effectiveness, Equation 22 is used as it gives a lower limit on the
effectiveness values being calculated on the lower of the two actual
measured temperatures differences. This is the temperature drop
across the condenser section to take into account the minor heat
losses.
Fig. 9 shows the variation of overall effectiveness with respect to
the inclination angle of the heat pipe heat exchanger. The investigation showed that by increasing the inclination angle and hence
keeping the condenser at a higher tilt, the effectiveness of the heat
pipe heat exchanger increases.
The numerical tool developed is used to predict the effectiveness of the heat exchanger as well as the evaporator and condenser
outlet temperatures. According to Figs. 10,11 and 12, wherein
experimental and predicted results are plotted graphically, it can be
seen that there is a good agreement between the analytical and
predicted values.

Fig. 11. Comparison of experimental & predicted evaporator outlet air temperature at
different evaporator inlet temperature.

H. Jouhara, H. Merchant / Energy 39 (2012) 82e89

89

Face velocity (m/s)

Effectiveness of heat exchanger

Subscript
h/e
c
o
i
a

Refers to the hot side of the heat exchanger (Evaporator)

Refers to the cold side of the heat exchanger (Condenser)
Refers to the outlet condition of the heat exchanger
Refers to the inlet condition of the heat exchanger
Refers to adiabatic section

References

Fig. 12. Comparison of experimental & predicted condenser outlet air temperature at
different evaporator inlet temperature.

10. Conclusion
The effects of the variation of evaporator inlet air temperature
and inclination angle of the heat exchanger were investigated
experimentally. The numerical tool developed assisted in theoretical investigation of the thermosyphon heat exchanger and
understanding the effect of varying evaporator inlet air temperatures. The experimental results show that signicant energy
savings can be achieved using thermosyphon based heat
exchangers to transfer heat energy between two air streams at
different temperatures. The performance testing rig is a novel and
cost effective means of testing the relevant variables associated
with this equipment without the need for full scale testing of
a complete cooling system. The veried model for predicting
effectiveness can be used to develop a heat pipe heat exchanger
model and can be applied to an actual air conditioning system for
unit sizing applications.
Acknowledgement
This work was funded by S & P Coils Limited. Special thanks are
due to Prof. I. Othman for his invaluable support. The technical
support of Mr Richard Meskimmon is highly appreciated. Thanks
are also due to Mr Jeff Bridge, Mr Costas Xanthos and Mr Clive
Barrett for their efforts in preparing the experimental apparatus.
Nomenclature
Symbol
A
C
Cp
Dh
Do
Di
h
kf
m
n
NTU
Pr
Q
Qmax
Rhp
T
Tf
U

Total area of one side of heat exchanger (m2)

Heat capacity rates (W/K)
Specic heat at constant pressure (J/Kg K)
Hydraulic diameter (m)
Outside diameter of the tube (m)
Inside diameter of the tube (m)
Heat transfer coefcient (W/m2k)
Thermal conductivity of the n (W/mK)
Mass ow rate (Kg/s)
Number of tube rows in heat exchanger
Number of Transfer Unit
Prandlts number
Heat transfer rate (W)
Maximum heat transfer rate (W)
Resistance of heat pipe (K/W)
Absolute temperature (K/ C)
Film temperature (K/ C)
Overall heat transfer coefcient (W/m2k)

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