Week 5

This week in lab, calculations to determine the amount of water that should be in a heat pipe was researched. However, after searching for a long period of time, no formulas surfaced. The professor was questioned and it became known that there are no calculations for heat pipes yet discovered. The professor stated that heat pipe testing takes a lot of trial and error and that the usual amount of water inside of the pipe is equal to 25%-30% the length of the pipe.

The parts that were bought from Home Depot were a ¾ inch by 2 feet copper pipe, wire mesh, and two ¾ inch copper end caps. When lab began this week, it was realized that not all of the parts would work well for this project. If the parts that were bought were used, both ends of the copper pipe would have had to be soldered. This means that it would not be possible to fluctuate the amount of water in the pipe to improve it. Therefore, a screw would have to be placed at one end to allow different amounts of water to be tested. The new parts that will be bought from Home Depot will be a threaded end piece, a threaded cap, and Teflon tape. The Teflon tape will be used to allow the threaded cap to be easily screwed onto the threaded end piece and therefore prevent leakage of the vapor inside of the pipe.