  This article deals with the numerical modeling of the pulsating heat pipe
(PHP) and is based on the film evaporation/condensation model recently applied
to the single-bubble PHP (Das et al., 2010, "Thermally Induced Two-Phase
Oscillating Flow Inside a Capillary Tube," Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer,
53(19--20), pp. 3905--3913). The described numerical code can treat the PHP of
an arbitrary number of bubbles and branches. Several phenomena that occur
inside the PHP are taken into account: coalescence of liquid plugs, film
junction or rupture, etc. The model reproduces some of the experimentally
observed regimes of functioning of the PHP such as chaotic or intermittent
oscillations of large amplitudes. Some results on the PHP heat transfer are
discussed.
