Publications & Conferences

2026
Journal 2026

Effects of inclination angle on oscillating heat pipe thermal conductance and dryout

Yuxuan Li, Zachary Wong, Jeff D. Eldredge, Adrienne S. Lavine, Timothy S. Fisher, Bruce L. Drolen

ASME Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, accepted, 2026

Predicting the operational limits of oscillating heat pipes (OHPs) under varying gravitational orientations remains a significant challenge for terrestrial and aerospace thermal management systems. The current paper extends and validates a previously reported two-dimensional conjugate heat transfer model to quantify the effect of inclination angles on the thermal performance and dryout behavior of an OHP filled with butane. The model couples a solid plate heat conduction module with a one-dimensional fluids module using the immersed boundary method. The gravity term has been added in the momentum equation to account for gravitational effects. Additionally, a novel computational method is used to simulate perfectly insulated edges on the plate and this updated approach accommodates complex OHP geometries in the future. The proposed model is quantitatively validated against terrestrial experiments across multiple inclination angles, demonstrating good agreement in predicting both steady-state thermal conductance and transient dryout thresholds. We characterize three representative cases: normal pseudo-steady operation, switching operation, and dryout. Finally, we observed that the dry fraction exhibits a strong correlation with the temperature difference and thus represents a key parameter controlling the thermal performance.
Proceeding Paper 2026

Numerical Approaches for Predicting Cavitation Inception in Non-Cavitating CFD Simulations

Doruk Isik, Yuxuan Li, Azfar Ali, Todd Koehler, Chiranth Srinivasan

Proceedings of the ASME 2026 Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting, Bellevue, Washington, 2026

Double-suction impellers can experience cavitation inception before measurable head degradation appears, making early detection important for pump design. This paper evaluates three pressure-based approaches for estimating incipient cavitation from non-cavitating CFD simulations: a minimum-pressure method, a regression-based bubble-accumulation method, and a localized sphere-based method. Implemented in Simerics-MP+, the methods are applied across steady and transient simulations of a single-stage double-suction impeller. The results compare method sensitivity, conservativeness, and the role of unsteady flow structures in predicted NPSHi.
2025
Proceeding Paper 2025

RANS-based simulation of KCS wave breaking characteristics

Yuxuan Li, Chengjie Wang

Wageningen 2025: A Workshop on CFD in Ship Hydrodynamics, 2025

This paper presents an unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulation of the bow wave breaking dynamics of a scaled KRISO Container Ship (KCS) using Simerics-MP+. The non-dimensional force coefficients exhibit excellent agreement with experimental data from China Ship Scientific Research Center (CSSRC), with a maximum error below 2%. Detailed comparisons of mean wave height confirm the high accuracy of the free surface simulation. Further analysis and visualizations of air tubes, vortical structures, and the non-dimensional velocity and vorticity fields under the free surface are provided. This work validates the fidelity of the RANS approach for capturing the KCS wave breaking dynamics.
2024
Journal 2024

A Conjugate Heat Transfer Model of Oscillating Heat Pipe Dynamics, Performance, and Dryout

Yuxuan Li, Jeff D. Eldredge, Adrienne S. Lavine, Timothy S. Fisher, Bruce L. Drolen

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2024, 227, 125530

Oscillating heat pipes (OHPs) consist of a serpentine capillary channel partially filled with liquid that is embedded in a thermally-conducting solid. They have significant advantages for cooling electronics and aerospace systems. The model reported here aims to capture the essential physics of an OHP with minimal complexity and treats some parameters typically derived from correlations or experiments (such as the film thickness and film triple point velocity) as functions with tunable constants to be estimated by data assimilation. This model contains two modules. The first uses a novel and flexible formulation of the conducting solid, solving the two-dimensional heat equation in a thin plate, with evaporators and condensers as immersed forcing terms and the OHP channel as an immersed line source. The second module solves one-dimensional fluid motion and heat transfer equations within the fluid-filled channels based on mass, momentum, and energy conservation, nucleate boiling, and bubble dryout. It extends the commonly-used film evaporation-condensation model, allowing both variable liquid film thickness and length and thereby enabling the model to capture dryout. These modules are weakly coupled, in that wall temperature in the channels are obtained from the first module and heat flux from the channels determines the line source strength. After minimal training, the thermal conductance calculated by this model shows good agreement with a wide range of experiments performed by Drolen et al. (Drolen et al, JTHT, 2022). In particular, the model successfully predicts the experimentally-observed transition from stable OHP operation to dryout, for the first time to the authors' knowledge.
2023
Proceeding Paper 2023

A data assimilation model of oscillating heat pipe dynamics and performance

Yuxuan Li, Jeff D. Eldredge, Adrienne S. Lavine, Timothy S. Fisher, Bruce L. Drolen

Joint 21st International Heat Pipe Conference and 15th International Heat Pipe Symposium, Melbourne, Australia, 2023

Presentation 2023

Estimating thermofluid system parameters using a Markov chain Monte Carlo method, with an example of oscillating heat pipes

Yuxuan Li, Jeff D. Eldredge, Adrienne S. Lavine, Timothy S. Fisher, Bruce L. Drolen

76th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, Washington, DC, 2023

Presentation 2023

Empirically Trained Models of Oscillating Heat Pipes for Improved Performance, Limits, and Control

Yuxuan Li, Zachary Wong, Jeff D. Eldredge, and Timothy S. Fisher

2023 Spacecraft Thermal Control Workshop, Torrance, 2023

2022
Presentation 2022

Thermofluid modeling of an oscillating heat pipe

Yuxuan Li, Jeff D. Eldredge, Adrienne S. Lavine, Timothy S. Fisher, Bruce L. Drolen

75th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, Indianapolis, Indiana, 2022

2020
Journal 2020

Gaussian models for late-time evolution of two-dimensional shock–light cylindrical bubble interaction

Yuxuan Li, Zi'ang Wang, Bin Yu, Bin Zhang, Hong Liu

Shock Waves, 2020, 30: 169–184

Two-dimensional shock–bubble interaction is an analogy of the steady three-dimensional jet flow in a scramjet. On the basis of Navier–Stokes simulations, a cylindrical bubble embedded with hydrogen surrounded by air was accelerated by a shock. The evolution can be divided into the lobe-emergence stage, the back-lobe suction stage, and the equilibrium stage. Based on the inhomogeneity between the hydrogen mass fraction and the vorticity field, a correlation coefficient is proposed to quantitatively determine the starting moment of the equilibrium stage. In the equilibrium stage, quasi-Gaussian distributions are modeled for the mass fraction and the vorticity. Surface integrals are performed to derive corresponding mixedness and circulation models, both controlled by two statistical parameters (standard deviation and peak value). Such Gaussian integrated models are universal for different cylindrical bubble aspect ratios (AR = 0.5–2) and shock Mach numbers (M = 1.22–2). They provide a statistical perspective of late-time SBI evolution and help better understand the compressible mixing of scramjet combustors.