Abstract: To better understand the operating mechanism of the pulsating heat pipe,the heat transfer and flow characteristic of ethane pulsating heat pipe based on the experiment was numerically investigated by using the VOF model.The simulation results showed that the random distribution of vapor and liquid phase in the pulsating heat pipe tubes had been formed after charging the working fluid.When the pulsating heat pipe started up and worked stably,the time of single periodical pulsating of temperature was decreased with the increasing of the heat load.In addition,the flow pattern in the tube of the pulsating heat pipe was also changing constantly when the pulsating heat pipe worked stably.The simulation results were compared with the previous experimental results,which proved that the numerical simulation method used in this paper is applicability feasibility.