Eur. Phys. J. E (2014) 37: 4
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2014-14004-7

Regular Article

Laminar and Intermittent flow in a tilted heat pipe

¹ Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon UMR5672, 46 allée d’Italie, 69364, Lyon Cedex 07, France
² College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, North Park Road, EX4 4QF, Exeter, UK
³ CNRS UMR 6614 - CORIA, Université de Rouen, Site Universitaire du Madrillet, 675, avenue de l’Université, BP 12, 76801, Saint Etienne du Rouvray Cedex, France

^* e-mail: Francesca.Chilla@ens-lyon.fr

Received: 29 April 2013
Revised: 16 September 2013
Accepted: 10 January 2014
Published online: 29 January 2014

Abstract

Heat transfer measurements performed by Riedinger et al. (Phys. Fluids, 25, 015117 (2013)) showed that in an inclined channel, heated from below and cooled from above with adiabatic walls, the flow is laminar or intermittent (local bursts can occur in the laminar flow) when the inclination angle is sufficiently high and the applied power sufficiently low. In this case, gravity plays a crucial role in the characteristics of the flow. In this paper, we present velocity measurements, and their derived tensors, obtained with Particle Image Velocimetry inside the channel. We, also, propose a model derived from a jet interpretation of the flow. Comparison between experiment and model shows a fair agreement.