Week Eight Update

Last week we touched up on our final report and met to correct our draft where we saw fit.  We created better visuals for our report to represent our data in an easy to read fashion.  This week in lab we would like to take another test run of data with each liquid to finalize our results, and we will make sure to start these tests from the same temperature.  We will also look to translate our report and project into a well designed presentation this week.  Ideally, we will meet a few times this week to practice and refine the presentation.

Here are a few examples of our visuals:

Figure 1: Temperature of Water as a function of Time

Figure 2: Temperature of Acetone as a function of Time.

Week Seven Update

Last week we tested our heat pipe again with water and acetone to ensure our previous results were correct. The results remained the same as acetone achieving a higher temperature. Here is a picture of our working heat pipe.

We plan to work on the final draft more this week and add more materials we learn from lab. In next week we plan to triple check our results and work on the final draft. 

Week Six Update

Last week we tested our heat pipe using acetone as the heat transfer fluid. It went well, giving us an overall higher temperature at stabilization than using water did.
Here is the data from that test:

Time (sec)	Temperature (°F)
60	115
90	123
120	128
150	131
180	137
210	140
240	144
270	147
300	149
330	153
360	156
390	158
420	160
450	161

We decided not to test methanol like we had planned, as we don't really have the equipment necessary to do it safely. This week we have been working on our draft for our final report. In lab we plan to test our heat pipe again, with water and acetone, to confirm the results we got previously.

Week 5 Post

Last week in class we assembled our heat pipe, and tested it using tap water. At first our results were bad, because we were not measuring the temperature at the point where the water was condensing. We also had an issue with our pipe leaking. But we fixed the leak and quickly figured out where we needed to measure from, and got some better data.

Table 1: Temperature of Heat Pipe at Timed Intervals

Time (sec)	Temperature (°F)
30	80
60	85
90	88
120	89
150	93
180	108
210	115
240	114

Next week in class we plan to test using acetone, and then methanol, and will be able to see how they compare with our results for water.

Week 4 Update

This week we completed our initial prototype of our heat pipe. We switched our preferred material to Stainless Steel (316) due to the nature of it.  The copper pipe acquired from the shop was too thin to cut a pipe thread, and the thicker stainless was already available to one of our group members.  The stainless is a 1/2 inch pipe with an outside diameter of .840 in.  The pipe thread uses National Pipe Thread (NPT) standards.  The caps for the pipe were obtained from Fastenal and our also Stainless Steel (316).  Teflon tape will be used to secure the threads to stop any passages opening when testing our liquids.

Week 3 Update

Week three was our group's time to order all of our materials. We successfully ordered our liquids which were methanol and acetone. Methanol already arrived and acetone is still on its way. Our group is going to use distilled water in our heat pipe, not normal tap water. We will be able to get distilled water from the Disque building because water distilling machines are in the hallway hooked up to the water fountains.
Our group member Jeffery was able to bring copper pipe from home in order to save money on our budget. We will be able to begin assembly of our heat pipe in the following lab. Our plan is to thread one end of the copper pipe and put a threaded cap on the end. This allows for a tight seal and an opening to insert an appropriate liquid.

Week Two Update

Figure 1: 3-D Model of One End of Heat Pipe

Week two was yet another research week, consisting of mainly identifying appropriate working fluids for our type of material, copper.  The decision was made to test three different fluids with this project being, Acetone, Methanol, and Water.

As shown above in Figure 1 developments were also made on the CAD based drawings through SOLIDWORKS.  Figure 1 displays a design with grooves running throughout the pipe and a thread on one end, this was the design originally planned on although changes could be made as testing occurs.  The above design in Figure 1 was taken and transferred into a 2-D model which displays each viewing angle which will be used as a basis for fabrication of the design.

Figure 2: 2-D Multiple Angle View of Heat Pipe