Heat Transport Characteristics in a Miniature Flat Heat Pipe With Wire Core Wicks

2008 ◽  
Vol 130 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Jiao ◽  
H. B. Ma ◽  
J. K. Critser

A mathematical model predicting the heat transport capability in a miniature flat heat pipe (FHP) with a wired wick structure was developed to analytically determine its maximum heat transport rate including the capillary limit. The effects of gravity on the profile of the thin-film-evaporation region and the distribution of the heat flux along a curved surface were investigated. The heat transfer characteristics of the thin-film evaporation on the curved surface were also analyzed and compared with that on a flat surface. Combining the analysis on the thin-film-condensation heat transfer in the condenser, the model can be used to predict the total temperature drop between the evaporator and condenser in the FHP. In order to verify the model, an experimental investigation was conducted. The theoretical results predicted by the model agree well with the experimental data for the heat transfer process occurring in the FHP with the wired wick structure. Results of the investigation will assist in the optimum design of the curved-surface wicks to enlarge the thin-film-evaporation region and a better understanding of heat transfer mechanisms in heat pipes.

2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 644-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Hanlon ◽  
H. B. Ma

A two-dimensional model is presented to predict the overall heat transfer capability for a sintered wick structure. The model considers the absence of bulk fluid at the top surface of the wick, heat conduction resistance through the wick, capillary limitation, and the onset of nucleate boiling. The numerical results show that thin film evaporation occurring only at the top surface of a wick plays an important role in the enhancement of evaporating heat transfer and depends on the thin film evaporation, the particle size, the porosity, and the wick structure thickness. By decreasing the average particle radius, the evaporation heat transfer coefficient can be enhanced. Additionally, there exists an optimum characteristic thickness for maximum heat removal. The maximum superheat allowable for thin film evaporation at the top surface of a wick is presented to be a function of the particle radius, wick porosity, wick structure thickness, and effective thermal conductivity. In order to verify the theoretical analysis, an experimental system was established, and a comparison with the theoretical prediction conducted. Results of the investigation will assist in optimizing the heat transfer performance of sintered porous media in heat pipes and better understanding of thin film evaporation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 579 ◽  
pp. 379-386
Author(s):  
Cho Han Lee ◽  
Yao Yang Tsai

Two-phase heat transfer devices such as heat pipes and vapor chambers are composed of an evaporator, an adiabatic section and a condenser. For the dry-out prevention and capillary purpose, adiabatic sections and evaporators are covered by wick structures. Common wick structures are grooves, mesh, sintered powder and their combination. Combining with the wick structures, the major phase change effects on evaporators are thin-film evaporation. For the research between parameters of wick structure and evaporator performance, we developed a facility to measure the heat transfer on evaporators. To ensure the least heat losing, the path of heat flux and test condition were designed with several thermal guards. A pressure control system was established with balance mechanisms to maintain a stable condition of low pressure. Since temperature differences are very fast while the major phase change effect is thin-film evaporation, a high speed data acquisition system was used. Based on this test platform, the performance of evaporators can be determined at specific conditions.


Author(s):  
M. Ghajar ◽  
J. Darabi

A number of analytical and numerical models have been developed by various researchers to predict the behavior of loop heat pipes (LHP). However, none of those models use the thin-film evaporation principles in the capillary structures to evaluate the local evaporative heat transfer coefficients. In this work, principles of the thin film evaporation are applied in a submodel and combined with our previously developed loop solver model to more accurately simulate the performance of a flat micro loop heat pipe. The resulting code predicts the heat removal capability, surface temperature, and local and average heat transfer coefficients at various applied heat loads. The results indicate that extremely high cross-sectionally averaged evaporative heat transfer coefficients can be achieved. The modeling results are verified by experimental data.


Author(s):  
Bingyao Lin ◽  
Nanxi Li ◽  
Shiyue Wang ◽  
Leren Tao ◽  
Guangming Xu ◽  
...  

Abstract In this paper, a thin film evaporation model that includes expressions for energy, mass and momentum conservation was established through the augmented Young-Laplace model. Based on this model, the effects of pore size and superheating on heat transfer during thin film evaporation were analyzed. The influence of the wick diameter of the loop heat pipe (LHP) on the critical heat flux of the evaporator is analyzed theoretically. The results show that pore size and superheating mainly influence evaporation through changes in the length of the transition film and intrinsic meniscus. The contribution of the transition film area is mainly reflected in the heat transfer coefficient, and the contribution of the intrinsic meniscus area is mainly apparent in the quantity of heat that is transferred. When an LHP evaporator is operating in a state of surface evaporation, a higher heat transfer coefficient can be achieved using a smaller pore size.


Author(s):  
Solomon Adera ◽  
Rishi Raj ◽  
Evelyn N. Wang

Thermal management is increasingly becoming a bottleneck for a variety of high power density applications such as integrated circuits, solar cells, microprocessors, and energy conversion devices. The performance and reliability of these devices are usually limited by the rate at which heat can be removed from the device footprint, which averages well above 100 W/cm2 (locally this heat flux can exceed 1000 W/cm2). State-of-the-art air cooling strategies which utilize the sensible heat are insufficient at these large heat fluxes. As a result, novel thermal management solutions such as via thin-film evaporation that utilize the latent heat of vaporization of a fluid are needed. The high latent heat of vaporization associated with typical liquid-vapor phase change phenomena allows significant heat transfer with small temperature rise. In this work, we demonstrate a promising thermal management approach where square arrays of cylindrical micropillar arrays are used for thin-film evaporation. The microstructures control the liquid film thickness and the associated thermal resistance in addition to maintaining a continuous liquid supply via the capillary pumping mechanism. When the capillary-induced liquid supply mechanism cannot deliver sufficient liquid for phase change heat transfer, the critical heat flux is reached and dryout occurs. This capillary limitation on thin-film evaporation was experimentally investigated by fabricating well-defined silicon micropillar arrays using standard contact photolithography and deep reactive ion etching. A thin film resistive heater and thermal sensors were integrated on the back side of the test sample using e-beam evaporation and acetone lift-off. The experiments were carried out in a controlled environmental chamber maintained at the water saturation pressure of ≈3.5 kPa and ≈25 °C. We demonstrated significantly higher heat dissipation capability in excess of 100 W/cm2. These preliminary results suggest the potential of thin-film evaporation from microstructured surfaces for advanced thermal management applications.


Author(s):  
Chunji Yan ◽  
Xinxiang Pan ◽  
Xiaowei Lu

A mathematic model, which can be used to predict the evaporation and fluid flow in thin film region, is developed based on momentum and energy conservations and the augmented Young-Laplace equation in this paper. In the model the variations of the enthalpy and kinetics energy of the thin-film along the evaporating region are considered. By theoretical analysis, we have obtained the governing equation for thin film profile. The fluid flow and phase-change heat transfer in an evaporating extended meniscus are numerically studied. The differences between the model considering momentum conservation only and including both momentum and energy conservations are compared. It is found that the maximum heat flux of the thin-film evaporation by using two mathematical models obtained has no change, but when considering the momentum and energy conservations the total heat transfer rate unit width along the thin-film evaporation region is greater than that of only including momentum equation.


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