Operation Characteristics of a High Temperature Special Shaped Heat Pipe Used in Solar Thermochemical Reactors.

Solar energy can be transformed to storable chemical fuels through high temperature thermochemical processes driven by concentrated solar radiation. Solar thermochemical reactors (STRs) are the key equipment to these processes. An STR integrated with heat pipe technology is proposed. The core part of this reactor is a high temperature special shaped heat pipe (HTSSHP), which is composed of a flat disk-shape evaporator and multiple cylindrical condensers. A second generation HTSSHP with sodium as the working fluid was fabricated and tested in this work. The evaporating behaviors of sodium and isothermal characteristics were investigated at various operation conditions. A temperature pulsation phenomenon on heating surface was observed lasting for a short period during its startup when the heat flux beyond 47.2 kW/m², implying the generation of film boiling. Further, the operation characteristic of HTSSHP was experimentally proven steady under various heat fluxes and inclination angles, and it showed a good ability to spread temperature at the cooling side where the thermochemical processes take place. This work will facilitate the preliminary understanding of the operation characteristics in HTSSHP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]