Experimental investigation of a miniature loop heat pipe with eccentric evaporator for cooling electronics

Abstract

In the study, a miniature loop heat pipe (mLHP) that employed a flat disk type evaporator with longitudinal replenishment was presented. The biporous wick was fabricated from sintered nickel powders and was eccentrically installed in the cavity of the evaporator to simultaneously form the evaporation and compensation section. Methanol was selected as the working fluid with a charge ratio of 80%. The total length of the mLHP system corresponded to 750 mm. In the study, the temperature of the heat sink was varied from 0 °C to 35 °C. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed mLHP starts up successfully under a heat load ranging from 2 W to 60 W in the horizontal orientation. Additionally, the mLHP system exhibited a good response to a low heat load. The thermal resistance of the evaporator and LHP decreased with increases in the heat load, and a minimum Revap of 0.27 °C/W was obtained at a heat load of 60 W. The effect of different heat sink temperatures on the performance of the mLHP was analyzed in the study.