Experiment research on the effect of the evaporator’s configuration design of an innovative ultra-thin looped heat pipe

• Published in: International journal of heat and mass transfer Vol. 92; pp. 497 - 506
• Main Authors: Hong, Sihui, Zhang, Xinqiang, Tang, Yongle, Wang, Shuangfeng, Zhang, Zhengguo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-01-2016
• Subjects: Evaporator configuration; Heat transfer capability; Operation temperature; Thermal resistance; Ultra-thin looped heat pipe; Ultra-thin looped heat pipe; Heat transfer capability; Evaporator configuration; Thermal resistance; Operation temperature
• ISSN: 0017-9310; 1879-2189
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2015.08.070

•Proposed a wickless ultra-thin loop heat pipe with only 1.5mm thickness.•Designed three ULHP prototypes with various evaporator configurations.•Experimentally studied the thermal performance of the ULHP.•Comparative research of the ULHPs was conducted and reasonable explanation was given.•The ULHP could start up with low temperature and work with low thermal resistance.
Three ultra-thin looped heat pipe (ULHP) prototypes with different evaporator configurations are designed and developed, their heat transfer characteristics are compared by experiments in the aspects like the operation temperature, thermal resistance, start-up characteristic and heat leakage situation, the operating principle of the ULHPs is further explored and clearly understood. The experimental results demonstrated that the designed ULHPs meet the requirements of different thermal management systems. Specially, the thermal resistance of the one with the optimized configuration reaches as low as 0.08K/W. The high efficient running of the ULHPs system relies on the smooth circulation of the working fluid. The choice of the suitable structure in evaporator can effectively reduce the operation temperature and the temperature difference of the evaporator, decrease the leaked heat and thermal resistance, and accelerate the start-up process.