An Experimental Study of Heat Transfer Characteristics in Miniature Loop Heat Pipes With Rectangular Shaped Evaporator

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. R. Lin ◽  
Z. Y. Lee ◽  
L. W. Zhang ◽  
S. F. Wang ◽  
A. A. Merrikh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Pipe ◽  
Heat Transport ◽  
Heat Sink ◽  
Thermal Design ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Loop Heat Pipe ◽  
Heat Transfer Characteristics ◽  
Transfer Characteristics ◽  
Heat Transport Capability

Loop heat pipe (LHP) is a highly efficient cooling device. It has gained great attention in the electronics cooling industry due to its superior heat transport capability — that is, its ability to carry heat over long distances. For this article, a miniature flat loop heat pipe (MFLHP) with rectangular-shaped evaporator was developed. The LHP’s evaporator was combined with the compensation chamber. MFLHPs with different diameters and lengths for the connecting pipeline were selected for a series of experimental studies on their heat transfer characteristics. In these experiments, pure water was used as the working fluid. The studies showed that the heat transport capability of a MFLHP with 4 mm diameter was better than that a MFLHP with 3 mm diameter. At a low thermal resistance of 0.04°C /W (at 200W), an optimal length for the connecting pipeline for a particular MFLHP with 4 mm diameter was identified. Finally, a heat sink attached to a MFLHP was developed for cooling a graphics processing unit (GPU), the thermal design power (TDP) of which was 200 W. The results showed the GPU heat sink with MFLHP had good performance and satisfied GPU cooling requirements. Compared to the conventional heat pipe solutions, only one MFLHP was able to cope with high power dissipation, offering the potential to make a lighter heat sink.

scholarly journals Heat-Transfer Characteristics of a Cryogenic Loop Heat Pipe for Space Applications

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1616
Author(s):  
Jaehwan Lee ◽  
Dongmin Kim ◽  
Jeongmin Mun ◽  
Seokho Kim
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Pipe ◽  
Infrared Detectors ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Loop Heat Pipe ◽  
Zero Gravity ◽  
Heat Transfer Characteristics ◽  
Space Applications ◽  
Transfer Characteristics ◽  
Start Up

Infrared detectors on satellites and spacecraft require cooling to increase their measurement sensitivity. To efficiently cool infrared detectors in a zero gravity environment and in limited spaces, a cryogenic loop heat pipe (CLHP) can be used to transfer heat over a certain distance by the capillary forces generated from porous wicks without a mechanical power source. The CLHP presented in this study transfers the heat load to a condenser 0.5 m away from an evaporator at temperatures below −150 °C. The CLHP with two evaporators includes a subloop for initial start-up, and uses a pressure reduction reservoir (PRR) for the supercritical start-up from room to cryogenic temperature. Nitrogen is used as the working fluid to verify the thermal behavior of the CLHP, and the heat-transfer capacity according to the nitrogen charging pressure of the PRR is investigated. To simulate a cryogenic environment, the CLHP is installed inside a space environment simulator, including a single-stage GM (Gifford McMahon) cryocooler to cool the condenser. The CLHP is horizontally installed to simulate zero gravity. The heat-transfer characteristics are experimentally evaluated through the loop circulation of the CLHP.

Effect of Wick Characteristics on the Thermal Performance of the Miniature Loop Heat Pipe

2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Randeep Singh ◽  
Aliakbar Akbarzadeh ◽  
Masataka Mochizuki
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Transfer Coefficient ◽  
Transfer Coefficient ◽  
Heat Pipe ◽  
Thermal Performance ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Vapor Flow ◽  
Loop Heat Pipe ◽  
Heat Transfer Characteristics ◽  
Transfer Characteristics

Two phase heat transfer devices based on the miniature version of loop heat pipe (LHP) can provide very promising cooling solutions for the compact electronic devices due to their high heat flux management capability and long distance heat transfer with minimal temperature losses. This paper discusses the effect of the wick properties on the heat transfer characteristics of the miniature LHP. The miniature model of the LHP with disk-shaped evaporator, 10 mm thick and 30 mm disk diameter, was designed using copper containment vessel and water as the working fluid, which is the most acceptable combination in electronic cooling applications. In the investigation, wick structures with different physical properties including thermal conductivity, pore radius, porosity, and permeability and with different structural topology including monoporous or biporous evaporating face were used. It was experimentally observed that copper wicks are able to provide superior thermal performance than nickel wicks, particularly for low to moderate heat loads due to their low heat conducting resistance. With monoporous copper wick, maximum evaporator heat transfer coefficient (hev) of 26,270 W/m2 K and evaporator thermal resistance (Rev) of 0.06–0.10°C/W were achieved. For monoporous nickel wick, the corresponding values were 20,700 W/m2 K for hev and 0.08–0.21°C/W for Rev. Capillary structure with smaller pore size, high porosity, and high permeability showed better heat transfer characteristics due to sufficient capillary pumping capability, low heat leaks from evaporator to compensation chamber and larger surface area to volume ratio for heat exchange. In addition to this, biporous copper wick structure showed much higher heat transfer coefficient of 83,787 W/m2 K than monoporous copper wick due to improved evaporative heat transfer at wick wall interface and separated liquid and vapor flow pores. The present work was able to classify the importance of the wick properties in the improvement of the thermal characteristics for miniature loop heat pipes.

Improvement of Heat Transfer Performance of Loop Heat Pipe for Electronic Devices

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomonao Takamatsu ◽  
Katsumi Hisano ◽  
Hideo Iwasaki
Keyword(s):  
Heat Pipe ◽  
Heat Transport ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Heat Load ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Electronic Devices ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Loop Heat Pipe ◽  
Reserve Area ◽  
Heat Transport Capability

In this paper is presented the results on performance of the cooling model using Loop Heat Pipe (LHP) system. In recent years, ever-ending demand of high performance CPU led to a rapid increase in the amount of heat dissipation. Consequently, thermal designing of electronic devices need to consider some suitable approach to achieve high cooling performance in limited space. Heat Pipe concept is expected to serve as an effective cooling system for laptop PC, however, it suffered from some problems as follows. The heat transport capability of conventional Heat Pipe decreases with the reduction in its diameter or increase in its length. Therefore, in order to use it as cooling system for future electronic devices, the above-mentioned limitations need to be removed. Because of the operating principle, the LHP system is capable of transferring larger amount of heat than conventional heat pipes. However, most of the LHP systems suffered from some problems like the necessity of installing check valves and reservoirs to avoid occurrence of counter flow. Therefore, we developed a simple LHP system to install it on electronic devices. Under the present experimental condition (the working fluid was water), by keeping the inside diameter of liquid and vapor line equal to 2mm, and the distance between evaporator and condenser equal to 200mm, it was possible to transport more than 85W of thermal energy. The thickness of evaporator was about 5mm although it included a structure to serve the purpose of controlling vapor flow direction inside it. Successful operation of this system at inclined position and its restart capability are confirmed experimentally. In order to make the internal water location visible, the present LHP system is reconstructed using transparent material. In addition, to estimate the limit of heat transport capability of the present LHP system using this thin evaporator, the air cooling system is replaced by liquid cooling one for condensing device. Then this transparent LHP system could transport more than 100W of thermal energy. However, the growth of bubbles in the reserve area with the increase in heat load observed experimentally led to an understanding that in order to achieve stable operation of the LHP system under high heat load condition, it is very much essential to keep enough water in the reserve area and avoid blocking the inlet with bubbles formation.

Heat Transfer Characteristics of Oscillating Heat Pipe With Ethanol as Working Fluid

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haizhen Xian ◽  
Dengying Liu ◽  
Yongping Yang ◽  
Xiaoze Du
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Pipe ◽  
Inclination Angle ◽  
Effective Conductivity ◽  
Heating Temperature ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Heat Transfer Characteristics ◽  
Transfer Characteristics

In this paper, experimental investigations on the heat transfer characteristics of OHP with ethanol as working fluid were conducted. The experimental results show that there exists a necessary temperature difference between evaporator and condenser section to keep the heat pipe working. The minimum temperature differences for the optimal operating conditions varied from 1.5 to 2.0°C. The maximum effective conductivity achieved could reach up to 111kW/m•°C. The heat pipe was obviously affected by the filling ratio in some cases but the influence law is irregular and related to inclination angles and heating temperatures. Not all OHPs operated well in the limiting case of a zero inclination angle. In most cases, the optimal value of the inclination angle went up when the heating temperature increased. An appropriate high heating temperature is helpful for the OHP to achieved excellent performances. The startup temperature varied from 40°C to 50°C without considering the horizontal heating mode.

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