Thermal performance of heat pipe with different micro-groove structures

Abstract

Four kinds of micro heat pipe of trapezoidal groove wick structure with different numbers of grooves or aspect ratios were studied and compared about thermal transfer performances in order to optimize the manufacture of micro heat pipe with groove wick structure. The results show that these micro heat pipes have excellent performance in heat transfer; the equivalent thermal conductivity coefficient is two orders of magnitude compared with that of copper; the number and aspect ratio of grooves have a prominent effect on the performance of such thermal transfer. The optimum number of grooves is lower than 60 and the best aspect ratio is near to 1.5. The temperature and thermal transport rate are almost directly proportional relationship, but this relationship will be broken up suddenly when the critical heat flux is reached.