The inclination effect on the performance of water-filled heat pipes

Abstract Heat pipes have been used in wide ranges of applications today including solar engineering. During this research study, the inclination dependent performance of water filled heat pipes was investigated both theoretically and experimentally for solar energy applications. The results showed that the performance of water-filled heat pipes are strongly dependent on the inclination and the heat source temperatures. As a general result, the heat transfer capability of water filled heat pipes is reduced dramatically below a 45° tilt angle.