Experimental study on the thermal performance of aluminum three-dimensional vapor chamber heat sink with a louvered-fin stacked evaporator wick for data center servers

Abstract

Under increasing heat loads and stricter energy consumption limits for data center servers, traditional heat sinks are becoming inadequate. In this paper, a novel aluminum three-dimensional vapor chamber heat sink of air cooling is developed, in which the evaporator and condenser are connected internally to form a three-dimensional flow channel for working fluid so that two heat transfer methods, phase change and single-phase, are combined in one device. Furthermore, a novel louvered-fin stacked evaporator wick structure and its fabrication process are proposed, which greatly improve thermal performance and temperature uniformity. Thermal characteristics under different heat loads, fan input power, and tilt angles are studied experimentally. Results show that the heat sink has a maximum heat dissipation capability of more than 450W, at which the maximum evaporator surface temperature is within 75 °C. The fan input power can distinctly improve thermal performance, heat load impacts overall thermal resistance slightly and the minimum is 0.083 °C/W. The tilt angle impacts thermal resistance slightly but significantly affects both the evaporator surface and condenser fin temperature uniformity. Under a tilt angle of 90°, regardless of heat loads, the condenser fin temperature is much lower than other tilt angles.