Porous Structures in Heat Pipes

Abstract

This work deals with heat pipes with porous wick structures and experiments depending on the wick structure porosity, because the porosity is one of the wick structure properties which has effect on the heat transport ability of the heat pipe. The work describes manufacturing porous wick structures for wick heat pipe by sintering of copper metal powders with various powder grain size; manufacturing porous wick structures for loop heat pipe by sintering of copper and nickel metal powders with various powder grain size; influence of manufacturing technology on the wick structure porosity by microscopic analysis of the porous structure; design and construction of wick heat pipe and loop heat pipes; experimental determination influence of the wick structure porosity on the heat transport ability of loop heat pipes at various conditions; and experimental and mathematical determination influence of the wick structure porosity on the heat transport ability of wick heat pipes at various conditions.