Experimental Study of a Loop Heat Pipe with Direct Pouring Porous Wick for Cooling Electronics

Abstract

A pouring silicate wick was manufactured to explore the influence of process and physical properties on the production and performance of loop heat pipes (LHP). This paper theoretically analyzed the advantages of pouring porous wick and introduced the technology of pouring silicate directly on evaporator. Based on this, the heat transfer performance of copper-methanol LHP system with pouring porous wick was tested under different positions. The results showed that with the input of multiple heat sources, the LHP could start up and maintain a stable temperature from 40 W to 160 W. When the vapor grooves were located above the compensation chamber, it was difficult to start up positively. By adding gravity assistance, the system could obtain more stable liquid supply and vapor flow, so as to realize start up. In the variable heat load test, the LHP showed good adaptability to the change of heat load. The thermal resistance of the system decreased with the increase of heat load. The thermal resistance of the evaporator almost unchanged and was always lower than 0.05 °C/W, which indicated that the pouring porous wick in the evaporator had good heat load matching.