Steady Numerical Analysis of Potassium Heat Pipe

A numerical study to predict the characteristics on the steady operation of the potassium heat pipe was performed. The model of the heat pipe was composed of three conjugate heat transfer sections, i.e.the vapor,wick and wall. The governing equations and the boundary conditions were solved by the generalized PHOENICS computational code as a solver to acquire the profiles of the temperature, velocity and pressure for the heat pipe steady operation. The comparison of the data from calculation and experiment shows that the agreement is good. (authors)