Performance Of Flat Plate Heat Pipe Research Articles

Investigation on the thermal performance of flat-plate heat pipes with various working fluids under different inclination angles

As one promising high-efficiency equipment, flat-plate heat pipes show an important influence on the thermal management of energy systems. This research experimentally investigates the effects of working fluids (acetone, ethanol, and 1.0 wt% Al2O3 water-based nanofluid), liquid filling ratios (30%, 45%, 60%, and 80%), and inclination angles (0°, 30°, 60°, and 90°) on thermal resistance and equivalent heat transfer coefficient of flat-plate heat pipes under input powers of 15 W, 30 W, 45 W, and 60 W. Results indicate that the flat-plate heat pipe with filling ratio of 60% has the minimum thermal resistance of 2.50 °C/W. Compared with filling ratios of 30%, 45%, and 80%, thermal resistance for 60% filling ratio decreases by 42.8%, 27.8%, and 50.7%. The thermal resistances for inclination angles of 0°, 30°, and 90° increase by 88.9%, 2.97%, and 11.8% compared to that with an inclination angle of 60°. The equivalent heat transfer coefficient of the flat-plate heat pipe increases by 90.8% when the inclination angle increases from 0° to 60° due to an effect of gravity. The heat transfer coefficient of the flat-plate heat pipe decreases by 7.2% when the inclination angle increases from 60° to 90°. The thermal resistance of the flat-plate heat pipe using Al2O3 nanofluid as the working medium decreases by 15.2% and 58.7% compared to those with acetone and ethanol. It is observed that partial dryout occurs when the input power is above 30 W. The evaporator with 5 cm length shows the best heat transfer performance of the flat-plate heat pipe.

The visualized investigation on flow and heat transfer characteristics of flat-plate heat pipe with micro rectangular grooves

With the development of information technology, the heating power of data transmission equipment (mobile phones, notebook computers, data center processors, etc) continues to rise, and the high temperature failure has become a major cause of equipment damage. At present, the heat flux of high-power chips has reached 2 ´ 106 W/m2. Therefore, the traditional single-phase heat transfer is unable to meet the heat dissipation requirements of new data equipment, and more efficient heat exchange methods are urgently needed to ensure the normal operation of the equipment. As a highly efficient phase change heat transfer element, the thin plate grooved heat pipe is researched in the order of millimeters or even micrometers. Therefore, flat grooved heat pipes simultaneously satisfy the heat dissipation and packaging requirements of high power data transmission equipment, and thus have been extensively studied. In the present study, the phase change characteristics and heat transfer performance of flat-plate heat pipes with rectangular grooves were experimentally studied. Each micro heat pipe test section consisted of twenty parallel grooves with the same total length of 90 mm. The cross-sectional area of G-400 heat pipe and G-800 heat pipe were 400 μm ´ 400 μm and 800 μm ´ 800 μm, respectively. The evaporation section, adiabatic section and condensation section had the same size of 30 mm, and vapor space height was equal to 3.6 mm. The flat-plate was sealed on its upper face with transparent plate, and the phase change phenomenon in the grooves could be observed. A high speed camera was used to visualize the phase change phenomenon in evaporation and condensation regimes. The experiments were carried out with the same cooling water temperature of 30°C under the conditions comprising the heat power range of 18–90 W and filling ratio of 150%–400%, respectively. In order to systematically investigate the performance of flat heat pipes with different dimensions of micro grooves, the analysis was focused on the heat resistance and phase change phenomenon in evaporation section and condensation section. The results showed that the heat pipe with wide grooves was able to maintain stable heat transfer performance at higher heat power, while heat pipes with narrow grooves would dry out at lower heat power. The optimal liquid filling rate of G-400 heat pipe was 400%, and the optimal liquid filling ratio of G-800 heat pipe was 150%. Furthermore, the heat transfer in the evaporation section of flat heat pipe with narrow grooves was mainly dominated by liquid film evaporation. Comparatively, the heat transfer phenomenon in the evaporation section of a heat pipe with wide grooves was affected by the liquid filling ratio. The liquid film evaporation was the main solution at low liquid filling ratio, and continuous bubble behavior was visualized in high filling ratio. In addition, the phase change behaviors in the condensation section of rectangular-grooved flat heat pipe not only occured at the gas-liquid interface, but also had droplet condensation phenomenon on the top surface of the groove rib. The cycle of condensation consisted of three stages: Droplet growth, droplet coalescence, and droplet department.

Experimental study of microrectangular groove structure covered with multi mesh layers on performance of flat plate heat pipe for LED lighting module

The paper presents a novel concept for a coronary-stent-like model to solve the problem of compactness between wick and copper mesh, which can enhance the performance of the hybrid structure flat plate heat pipe (FPHP) of LED lighting modules. The various wick structures combine axial rectangular grooved structures, manufactured in aluminum extraction, and the concept of a coronary-stent-like model, which provides a supportive copper mesh and wick structure. In this study, the performance of FPHP was experimentally measured at different inclination angles and heating areas. The axial rectangular groove structure and copper mesh layer structures have different permeabilities and capillary pumping forces, and combining these two structures could be beneficial for pumping the required operational fluid across the axial groove structure and from the condenser to the evaporator under different inclinations of the flat plate heat pipe. The exterior wall temperature of the FPHP was measured to evaluate the thermal resistance and vapor heat transfer coefficient at the condenser and evaporator for 31×31 and 10×10mm2 heating areas. The experimental result showed that the FPHP has better performance in both the junction temperature of the LED light module and the uniformity of the substructure temperature. The highest FPHP temperature was decreased by 28%, as compared to a commercial substrate. In addition, a 200W LED light module, running for 9h with FPHP, maintained luminance at about 2080 lux due to its low thermal resistance and high capillary force.