Chapter 13 - Electronics thermal management applying heat pipes and pulsating heat pipes

Abstract

The application of heat pipes and pulsating heat pipes has found new challenges over recent years. The demand for thermal control devices with high performance is increasing, which has been caused by the necessity to offer reliable equipment for electronics cooling needs. Once first utilized for the thermal control of satellites and space probes, heat pipes have found new applications in laptop computers and workstations, high-density electronics packages, etc. Pulsating heat pipes have also found applications, especially in areas where there are limitations in using heat pipes because they are influenced by gravity. As the search for improvements of thermal control devices is constant, heat pipes and pulsating heat pipes have been considered as potential devices to use nanofluids to improve their heat transport capabilities. Several projects already have presented systems operating with nanofluids, showing important levels of heat transport augmentation that bring heat pipes and pulsating heat pipes to the edge of technologies with the potential for high-demand electronics cooling. The objective of this work is to present the fundamentals in designing heat pipes and pulsating heat pipes for thermal control, along with the advantages and disadvantages of using nanofluids in such devices.