Abstract

This paper studies the thermal applicability of two-phase thermosyphons in ovens/furnaces. The objective is to evaluate the performance of thermosyphons as heat transfer devices responsible for connecting the combustion and cooking chambers. Two different approaches were used: first, an experimental setup, which simulates an internal cross section of a convectional bakery oven cooking chamber assisted by vertical thermosyphons, was built. The experimental measurements show that the thermosyphons were able to provide a uniform temperature distribution inside the cooking chamber without the appearance of any overheated spot. In addition to the experimental setup, a theoretical lumped model was used to predict the air temperature variation and the relative importance of the convective and radiative heat transfer modes inside the cooking chamber. The net radiation heat transfer between the internal walls was determined numerically by means of a method described in [20]. The finite difference technique was applied for the computation of the non-linear differential system. The comparison between the model and the experimental data can be considered good, and the radiation was the major heat transfer mechanism inside the cooking chamber. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.