Experimental Study of Copper Wick Loop Heat Pipe with a Flat Plate Evaporator

Abstract

This investigation examines the effect of the sintering temperature curve in manufactured copper powder capillary structure (wick) for a loop heat pipe (LHP). The production process of the copper powder capillary structure is composed of chose the type of copper powder, filled in the stainless steel mold, sintering temperature curve set up, Sintering air hydrogen into the mold, release from mold, and the copper structured wick. The sintering temperature curve is composed of a region of increasing temperature; a region of constant temperature and a region of declining temperature. The set up rang of the temperature ramp as best parameter for the sintering temperature curve is 9.8°C /min. The set up unit of the temperature for sintering is 550°C. The minutes of the constant temperature is 30 minutes. The stage of cooling down section is we keep the item cooling by radiation until the temperature dropped to its ambient temperature. The three main parameters that can be measured in the evaluation of a factory made wick are pore radius 8.5μm, porosity 66.8%, and permeability 2.5×10-13m2. The result of experiment test demonstrates that the heat transfer performance is optimal at 120W; the minimal total heat flux is 12W/cm2, thermal resistance is approximately 1.3°C/W.