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Thermal characterization and wick optimization of mini-grooved flat heat pipe for electronics cooling

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Abstract

Effective cooling technology is intensely demanded to cool the electronic devices within small space under high heat flux. Mini-grooved flat heat pipe (FHP) with simple structure, close contact with heat source, uniform temperature and high thermal conductivity can satisfy the demand of transferring the great heat rapidly and weakening the hot spot of electronic devices. As fine wick feature and distribution played a critical part in improving the performance of mini-grooved FHP, a thermal experiment was established to explore the heat transfer characterization of mini-grooved FHP with different wick structures and distributions. And a mathematical model in one dimension was set up to investigate the fluid flow and heat transmission performance of FHP with V-type or rectangle-type grooves, expecting to assist the experiment in understanding the operating mechanisms of mini-grooved FHP further. Effects of input heat, inclined angle, working temperature and wick structure were examined. It is found that among the V-type, rectangle-type and block-type mini-grooved FHPs, V-type FHP presents better heat transfer rate, while block-type FHP displays larger maximum heat transfer amount. V2 sloped convex gradient mini-grooved FHP owns the optimum overall performance. It possesses the merits of narrower grooves at the evaporation section, wider grooves at the condensation section and larger vapor chamber space, which can optimize the liquid and vapor circulation processes inside the FHP. Its thermal resistance and maximum temperature reduce by almost 9.7% and 3.4% separately in comparison with those of V1 straight mini-grooved FHP, which is beneficial to guarantee the reliability and stability of electronic devices.

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Abbreviations

A :

Area, m2

c p :

Specific heat capacity at constant pressure, J kg−1 K−1

D :

Relative uncertainty

D h :

Hydraulic diameter, m

dT :

Temperature non-uniformity

f 0 :

Friction, N

g :

Gravity, m2·s−1

h :

Height, m

h fg :

Latent heat, J kg−1

h i * :

Convective heat transfer coefficient, W·m−2 K−1

l :

Length, m

p :

Pressure, Pa

Q :

Input heat, W

Q’ :

Heat transfer amount, W

R :

Thermal resistance, K W−1

Re:

Reynolds number

Rg :

Mass ideal gas constant, J kg−1 K−1

r :

Capillary radius, m

S :

Uncertainty

s :

Thickness, m

T :

Temperature, °C

\(\overline{T}\) :

Average temperature, °C

u :

Axial velocity, m s−1

V :

Volume, m3

w :

Width, m

X :

Direct measurement value

Y :

Indirect measurement value

z :

Axial coordinate direction

α :

Half V-type angle value, °

α v :

Vapor accommodation coefficient

η :

Liquid amount ratio

λ :

Thermal conductivity, W m K−1

μ :

Dynamic viscosity, N s m−2

ρ :

Density, kg m−3

τ :

Shear stress, N m−2

ϕ :

Inclined angle, °

adia:

Adiabat

ave:

Average

b:

Boss

c:

Capillary

con:

Condensation

eva:

Evaporation

f:

Fluid

g:

Groove

I:

Current

l:

Liquid

max:

Maximum

min:

Minimum

N:

Number

Q:

Input heat

Q loss :

Heat loss

R:

Thermal resistance

s:

Saturation

T:

Temperature

U:

Voltage

v:

Vapor

w:

Wick

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Acknowledgements

This work is financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52106108) and Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2021M702545).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Electronic Equipment Structure Design, Xidian University, Xi’an, 710071, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Fei Xin & Wenchao Tian

  2. Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering, MOE, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Ting Ma & Qiuwang Wang

  3. Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

    Yuying Yan

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  1. Fei Xin
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by FX, TM and QW. The first draft of the manuscript was written by FX and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Fei Xin.

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Xin, F., Ma, T., Wang, Q. et al. Thermal characterization and wick optimization of mini-grooved flat heat pipe for electronics cooling. J Therm Anal Calorim 147, 14859–14872 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-022-11739-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-022-11739-0

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