Squid-like soft heat pipe for multiple heat transport

Abstract

Soft heat pipes are vital in many applications. Inspired by the structure of a squid, we proposed a squid-like soft heat pipe with multiple heat transport branches that has excellent flexibility and outstanding thermal performance. Each branch could transport heat to different locations for multiple heating or cooling applications. The proposed soft heat pipe worked as a pulsating heat pipe with a unidirectional flow of liquid slugs and vapor bubbles. Its thermal performance was investigated at different heating temperatures, bending angles, and inclination angles. The result showed that the highest equivalent thermal conductivity of the squid-like soft heat pipe could be up to 6750 W/(m · K), almost 17 times that of copper. Besides, the bending angle had little effect on its thermal performance, with the equivalent thermal conductivity reducing 10%–13% when the heat pipe was bent from 0° to 90°. The thermal performance of the soft heat pipe was affected by the inclination angle, with the equivalent thermal conductivity reducing 20%–25% as the inclination angle was reduced from 90° to 30°. The proposed soft heat pipe is scalable by increasing the tube length and branches. It has many promising applications like waste heat recovery, electronic device cooling, personal thermal management, and renewable energy harvesting.