Current water-cooling technology used in the metallurgical industry poses a major safety concern. In addition, these systems are expensive to operate and result in significant energy losses. / The purpose of the research presented in this thesis was to develop a viable cooling system based on novel heat pipe technology which addresses these problems. This technology employs boiling as the means to store and transfer heat energy. The large heat extraction capacity of the device is owed to two design features: firstly, a separate return line that generates a column of liquid working fluid which drains into the evaporator by gravity, and secondly, a helical flow modifier in the evaporator that stabilizes annular two-phase flow. / A full-scale copper tapblock and launder were designed with water-based heat pipe cooling systems. These systems were successfully tested under industrial heat loading conditions, using a gas burner to simulate the heat loads. / The tapblock cooling system was able to dissipate 142 kW per heat pipe, at heat fluxes as high as 2.4 MW/m2. These values are the largest to date using the novel water-based heat pipe technology. The launder system was the first to incorporate horizontal heat pipes, as well as have multiple evaporators feeding a single condenser. / The cooling systems used in both experiments were fundamentally safer than watercooling systems, being operated at low pressures and with only several kilograms of water exposed to the heat source. The cooling water requirements of these systems represent a reduction of 80-95% compared to conventional water-cooling, with increased potential for energy recovery. / During the testing, dry-out and film boiling were identified as the main limitations. It was found that film boiling occurs when the flow in the evaporator is not great enough to generate a helical motion. The dry-out limitation was achieved when the velocity of the flow within the evaporator was too great, causing a large pressure gradient that opposes the gravity head of the return line. / Both of these limitations are related to the configuration of the evaporator, i.e. the return line and the flow modifier. A methodology was developed to model the evaporator numerically using computational fluid dynamics. This methodology can be used to understand how the design parameters of the evaporator affect the flow patterns during operation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.102819 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Navarra, Pietro, 1979- |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Mining, Metals and Materials Engineering.) |
| Rights | © Pietro Navarra, 2006 |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002602085, proquestno: AAINR32225, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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