Review of the development of pulsating heat pipe for heat dissipation

The expectation of sustainable development of energy and environment has widely attracted public׳s attention, and the high-efficiency heat transfer device is greatly needed. As a new heat transfer device, pulsating heat pipe (PHP) has been considered have a bright prospect due to its obvious advantages - simple structure, low cost and excellent heat transfer capability. A number of experimental and theoretical researches have been conducted on PHP in the past decades since it was proposed by Akachi in 1990. However, due to the hydrodynamic and thermodynamic coupling effect, the operational mechanism of PHP is extremely complex and has not been completely revealed so far. With great expectation of applications for the PHP in the near future, this paper attempts to review the development of PHP on the basis of systematic summary of the latest results of both experimental and theoretical studies. Meanwhile, some promising and innovatory applications of the PHP are also reported. This paper is expected to provide basic reference for future researches.