Design and fabrication of heat pipes using additive manufacturing for thermal management

Abstract

With the increase in the integration level of chips, capillary heat pipes are becoming increasingly valuable for the thermal management of high-heat-flux electronic devices. Here, we employ a thermal circuit model and 3D printing for heat pipe design and fabrication. The model was developed to predict the heat transfer performance of the heat pipe, and a heat pipe structure suitable for dissipating 20 W of heat load was designed. The aluminum heat pipes were fabricated by metal 3D printing, with acetone as the working fluid. Heat transfer experiments were conducted on the heat pipes with acetone filling ratios of 60%, 100%, and 150% (heat load: 5–40 W). The lowest thermal resistance was achieved with the 150% filling ratio at 20 W. The thermal resistance achieved with the 100% filling ratio was similar to the model’s prediction. The effective thermal conductivity was determined to increase by 5.81-fold by comparing the thermal performances of the heat pipe and a solid aluminum plate of the same volume. The results confirmed that heat pipes with desired heat transfer performances can be obtained as designed by employing a thermal circuit model and 3D printing technology.