TY - JOUR
T1 - Sustainable dropwise condensation enabled ultraefficient heat pipes
AU - Chang, Wei
AU - Luo, Kai
AU - Wang, Pengtao
AU - Abdulshaheed, Ahmed A.
AU - Li, Chen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Droplet published by Jilin University and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
PY - 2023/1
Y1 - 2023/1
N2 - Heat pipes play a critical role in determining the operations, safety, and energy efficiency of electronics. The main focus to improve the heat pipe performance is on the evaporator design or wicking structures. However, the intrinsic limitation comes from the condenser, which is fundamentally constrained by inefficient filmwise condensation (FWC). In this study, we successfully achieved a peak effective thermal conductivity (keff) of ~140 kW/(m·K) on widely used groove heat pipes by implementing sustianble dropwise condensation (DWC) and integrating with enhanced evaporator. To better understand the working mechanisms of the ultraefficient heat pipe, both the evaporator and condenser of the heat pipes have been modified accordingly. Our results show that up to 296% enhancements on the keff can be achieved under various inclination angles by only inducing DWC in the condenser section. The drawback of temperature fluctuations induced by DWC in smooth heat pipes appears to be effectively solved using the grooves-wicking structure. Furthermore, by integrating the nanostructured evaporator, the keff of the heat pipe can be boosted up to 517% compared to conventional groove heat pipes. This study, for the first time, demonstrates the huge potential of engineering both the condenser and evaporator simultaneously in developing ultraefficient heat pipes.
AB - Heat pipes play a critical role in determining the operations, safety, and energy efficiency of electronics. The main focus to improve the heat pipe performance is on the evaporator design or wicking structures. However, the intrinsic limitation comes from the condenser, which is fundamentally constrained by inefficient filmwise condensation (FWC). In this study, we successfully achieved a peak effective thermal conductivity (keff) of ~140 kW/(m·K) on widely used groove heat pipes by implementing sustianble dropwise condensation (DWC) and integrating with enhanced evaporator. To better understand the working mechanisms of the ultraefficient heat pipe, both the evaporator and condenser of the heat pipes have been modified accordingly. Our results show that up to 296% enhancements on the keff can be achieved under various inclination angles by only inducing DWC in the condenser section. The drawback of temperature fluctuations induced by DWC in smooth heat pipes appears to be effectively solved using the grooves-wicking structure. Furthermore, by integrating the nanostructured evaporator, the keff of the heat pipe can be boosted up to 517% compared to conventional groove heat pipes. This study, for the first time, demonstrates the huge potential of engineering both the condenser and evaporator simultaneously in developing ultraefficient heat pipes.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85160596989&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/dro2.43
DO - 10.1002/dro2.43
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85160596989
SN - 2769-2159
VL - 2
JO - Droplet
JF - Droplet
IS - 1
M1 - e43
ER -