The performance of ten wickless heat pipes without adiabatic sections is investigated experimentally at low heat inputs 120 to 2000 W/m2 for use in solar water heaters. Three heat pipe diameter groups were tested, namely 16, 22, and 28.5 mm. Each group had evaporator lengths of 1150, 1300, and 1550 mm, respectively, with an extra evaporator length of 1800 mm added to the second group. The condenser section length of all heat pipes was 200 mm. Ethanol, methanol, and acetone were utilized as working fluids, at inventory of 25%, 50%, 70%, and 90% by evaporator volume respectively. The 22 mm diameter pipes were tested at inclination angles 30◦, 45◦, and 60◦. Other diameter groups were tested at 45◦ only. Experiments revealed increased surface temperatures and heat transfer coefficients with increased pipe diameter and evaporator length, and that increased working fluid inventory caused pronounced reduction in evaporator surface temperature accompanied by improved heat transfer coefficient to reach maximum values at 50% inventory for the selected fluids. Violent noisy shocks were observed with 70% and 90% inventories with the tested heat pipes and the selected working fluids with heat flux inputs from 320–1900 W/m2. These shocks significantly affected the heat pipes heat transfer capability and operation stability. Experiments revealed a 45◦ and 50% optimum inclination angle of fill charge ratio respectively, and that wickless heat pipes can be satisfactorily used in solar applications. The effect of evaporator length and heat pipe diameter on the performance was included in data correlations.

An axial flow tubular heat exchanger has been experimentally investigated to augment the heat transfer rate with a novel swirl flow of air past the heated tubes. The novel design has been based on circular baffle plates provided with trapezoidal air deflectors of various inclination angles. The arrangement of tubes is kept the same throughout the experiment, in accordance with the longitudinal airflow direction. The tubes maintained a constant heat flux condition over the surface. Four deflectors with equal inclination angles were developed on each baffle plate, generating air swirl inside a circular duct carrying the heated tubes that increase air-side turbulence and, consequently, the surface heat transfer rate. The baffle plates were placed equidistant from each other at variable pitch ratios. The Reynolds number was kept in the range of 16000– 28000. The effect of pitch ratios and inclination angles on the thermo-fluid performance of the heat exchanger was studied. The investigations revealed an average improvement of 3.75 times in thermo-fluid performance for an exchanger with a deflector baffle plate with a baffle inclination angle of 50_ and a pitch ratio of 1.4 when compared to other inclination angles and pitch ratios.