Study on heat transfer characteristics of a dual-evaporator ultra-thin loop heat pipe for laptop cooling

Abstract

The thermal management of laptops is challenged by the presence of multiple heat sources with non-uniform distribution and limited space for heat dissipation. This paper proposes the application of a 1 mm thickness dual-evaporator ultra-thin loop heat pipe (DE-UTLHP) for cooling laptops. The start-up performance and steady-state heat transfer performance of the dual-evaporator ultra-thin loop heat pipes were studied under equal or unequal heat loads. The results show that successful set-up can be achieved within the range of heat loads from 5 W–5 W to 20 W–20 W in the horizontal orientation. And it can achieve a maximum heat load of up to 22 W–22 W and a minimum thermal resistance of 0.69 °C/W. Furthermore, it was found that it exhibited better heat transfer performance in the vertical orientation compared to the horizontal orientation. The proposed dual-evaporator ultra-thin loop heat pipes can convert isolated and dispersed direct heat dissipation into centralized and integrated thermal management for future laptops.