Research of Steady-State Heat Transfer Performance of Heat Pipe Inside Mobile Heat Pipe Reactor

Abstract High-temperature heat pipe is an important element in a mobile heat pipe reactor, and the study of the steady-state heat transfer performance of the heat pipe is of great value to the design and safe application of the heat pipe. Based on COMSOL software, a three-dimensional heat pipe model is established to study the effects of the input power of the evaporative section of the heat pipe and the horizontal acceleration of the heat pipe due to its movement on the heat transfer performance of the potassium heat pipe in steady-state operation. The results show that the overall temperature of the outer wall surface of the heat pipe and the axial temperature variation of the center of the heat pipe are less affected by the horizontal acceleration and more affected by the input thermal power within the study range; the thermal resistance of the heat pipe decreases with the increase of the input power of the evaporation section of the heat pipe, and shows a trend of decreasing and then increasing with the increase of the horizontal acceleration.