Experimental Studies on a Flat Plate Heat Pipe for Electronic Cooling

Balewgize A. Zeru
a
and A. MANI
b

a
Mechanical Engineering Department, Jimma University, Ethiopia, email: balewgize@gmail.com
b
Professor of Mechanical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, IITM


Abstract

Heat pipe is a device which works on the principle of thermosyphon with wick material for Liquid return. It
absorbs large amount of heat, latent heat of the working fluid, at the evaporator and rejects this heat at the
condenser section. Due to its heat transporting nature, light weight and high effective thermal conductivity, flat
plate heat pipe (FPHP) has been identified as potential device in this challenging area of thermal control of high
density electronic devices and space crafts.
In this present work, a FPHP without vapor chamber, of size 190x140x35mm is constructed from 2mm thick
copper plate and 2mm thick sintered bronze powder. Water is used as a working fluid and an experimental
performance tests have been done. Heat transport performance, transient responses and maximum heat capacity
are obtained. Theoretical limiting factors are calculated and the results are in agreement with the experimentally
obtained performances.
The objectives of this project are four perspectives; First, analytical study to predict heat transport limitations of
flat plate heat pipe; second, to design and fabricate a FPHP; third, to carry out the performance test and to study
the effect of operational parameters for optimum heat capacity.


1. Introduction

Heat pipe is a device which works on the principle of
thermosyphon with wick material lined to the inner
surface. The wick material assists the liquid return by
capillary pumping action. A heat pipe contains three
sections; the evaporator, adiabatic and condenser
sections. It absorbs large amount of heat, latent heat
of the working fluid, at the evaporator section and
rejects this heat at the condenser section. After the
idea of circular heat pipe was first suggested by
R.S.Gaugler in 1942, a lot of developments have been
made to the container, wick material and working
fluid used to maximize the amount of heat transport
from heat source to heat sink.
Flat plate heat pipe (FPHP) is recently developed
rectangular closed box like structure in which the
internal surfaces are lined with a wick material for
capillary pumping action. In this kind of heat pipe
either the top or the bottom surface can be as the
condenser section while some portion of the other
surface becomes the evaporator section, the height of
the box would be adiabatic section. The wick material
makes the FPHP works at different orientations
(adverse and favorable conditions of gravity on liquid
flow) with respect to the position of the evaporator
and condenser sections.
Permeability is the capacity of a porous medium to
transmit fluids. It is related to measurable properties
of the pore geometry such as porosity, pore size
distribution, and internal surface area. A high
permeability value leads to low flow resistance in the
wick and thus to higher heat transfer rates.
Flat plate heat pipes are used for cooling electronic
chips mounted on printed circuit boards. They have
also been developed for avionics applications and are
more compact and geometrically suitable for these
applications than the conventional cylindrical heat
pipes.

M. A. Halon and H. B. Ma [1] took two dimensional
model to predict the overall heat transfer capability
for sintered copper wick structure. They also
experimentally determined the optimum thickness of
sintered copper layer required for increasing the
evaporation heat transfer as a function of average
particle size by studying the effect of wick thickness
and the amount of charge on thin film evaporation.
Thin film evaporation was found to play the main
role to increase the evaporation heat transfer.
Balewgize A. Zeru / Jimma Univeristy Annual Research Conference Proceedings, 1
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(2010) 145-157

Y. Wang and K. Vafai [2] explained experimentally
and analytically that the temperature distribution
along the heat pipe (with sintered copper powder)
surfaces in the condenser section is quite uniform
while the porous wick in the evaporator section
constitutes the main thermal resistance resulting in a
larger temperature drop compared to other layers.
Transient performance was described by using the
concept of heat pipe time constant defined as the time
taken for the evaporator temperature to reach 62.3%
of its maximum temperature. The temperature
distribution and heat transfer coefficients are obtained
as a function of the heat flux with their empirical
correlation. A maximum heat flux of 1.4kW/m
2
is
achieved.
K. Vafai and W. Wang [3] developed a pseudo-three
dimensional analysis model for steady incompressible
vapor and liquid flows inside the flat plate heat pipe.
Details of the physics of the transport processes
within the heat pipe were analyzed and established.
They also investigated the maximum heat transfer
capacity of the flat plate heat pipe based on capillary
limitation using heavy water (D
2
O) as a working
fluid.
M.M. Chen and A. Faghri [4] studied the effect of
conjugate heat transfer, vapor compressibility and
viscous dissipation for liquid metal heat pipes by
solving the complete conservation of mass,
momentum and energy equations and analyzed
numerically. It was found that the vapor
compressibility should be considered for the
prediction of the sodium heat pipe temperature profile
when the Mach number is greater than M = 0.3. For
the heat pipe using water as the working fluid, the
vapor temperature along the heat pipe is almost
uniform, due to a very small pressure drop along the
pipe compared with the static vapor pressure and also
the thermodynamic equilibrium between the pressure
and temperature at the liquid-vapor interface.

2. Advantages of FPHP

As the size of electronic devices becomes
progressively smaller, the heat flux in electronic
devices becomes increasingly higher. It is anticipated
that the heat flux in many power electronic devices
may well exceed the 1MW/m
2
or 100 W/cm
2
level in
the near future. Heat pipes are very effective heat
transfer devices and can be used to augment the
thermal conductive path in order to spread a
concentrated heat source over a much larger surface
area. As a result, the high heat flux at the heat source
can be reduced to a much smaller and manageable
level that can be dissipated through conventional
cooling methods. The heat pipe used for electronic
cooling purposes is usually a wicked capillary force-
driven heat pipe, with a working temperature range of
about 50120
o
C.
For different types of FPHP, researchers have studied
the numerical as well as experimental performance.
And it is indicated that high permeability and small
Nomenclature

A= heat input area, m
2

A
w
= wick cross-sectional area

c
A = flow cross sectional area, m
2

, h v
D =hydraulic diameter, m
f= friction factor
fg
h = latent heat of vaporization of water, kJ/kg
L=length, m
k = thermal conductivity, W/mK
K=permeability, m
2

P= pressure, Pa
P=gravitational pressure drop, Pa
q= heat flux, kW/m
2

Q= heat limit, W
r = radius, m
Re =Reynolds number
T=temperature,
o
C
= density, kg/m
3

= viscosity, Pa.s
| = porosity, %
o =surface tension, N/m
o = wick material thickness, m
= angle of inclination

Subscripts:
b= boiling
c=capillary
cap= capillary
cond= condenser
e=entrainment
eff= effective
h=heater surface
l=liquid
max=maximum
p=powder particle
s=solid, sonic
tot= total
v=vapour

Balewgize A. Zeru / Jimma Univeristy Annual Research Conference Proceedings, 1
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(2010) 145-157
pore diameter of the wick material increases the heat
transfer due to low fluid flow resistance and high
capillary pumping advantages respectively. Sintered
metal powder and wire mesh have been used and
sintered metal powder is better than mesh due to
small pores. Recently metal foams are becoming
attracting wick materials for heat. Metal foams have
high permeability and many number of small
diameter pores that make the fluid transport and
capillary actions increase to maximize the heat
transferred by the heat pipe.
In this work FPHP is constructed from 2mm thick
copper plate as container, 2mm thick sintered bronze
powder (90%Cu and 10%Sn wt) as wick material and
distilled water as the working fluid. The size of the
FPHP is 190x140x35mm. The porosity is 32% and
pore diameter is 4m as measured by microscope and
SEM after polishing is done. This heat pipe is tested
for performance and the results are in good agreement
with the theoretical prediction as well as previously
available results.

Objective of present work

In this work there are four main objectives: First;
sintering of bronze powder, second; constructing flat
plate heat pipe and third; testing performance and
compare with the theoretical and previously available
results.

The heat dissipation from electronic components,
chips, is increasing time to time (as indicated in fig.
2.1 and fig. 2.2) and a device with high capacity of
cooling is required. Heat pipes are promising
candidates for these applications.

Fig.2.1. High performance chip cooling [Source;
Calce Advanced liquid Cooling, Scottsdales, AZ,
May 13-2003, university of Marryland].



Fig. 2.2. Telecom heat flux [Source; Calce Advanced
liquid Cooling, Scottsdales, AZ, May 13-2003,
university of Marryland].

3. Heat pipe limitations
The maximum possible circulation is required to
obtain the maximum heat transport capability of the
heat pipe. The limitation on the heat transport
capability include capillary pumping ability (capillary
limitation), chocking of working flow (sonic
limitation), tearing of liquid off the liquid-vapor
interface by vapor flowing at high velocity
(entrainment limitation), and disruption of the liquid
flow by nucleate boiling in the wick (boiling
limitation). Additional factors that affect heat pipe
performance include the temperature characteristics
of the heat pipe, the interface conditions between the
heat pipe and its external heat source and heat sink,
and the effects of the various heat pipe control
techniques.

3.1. Capillary limit
In order to maintain the continuity in evaporation and
condensation, the total pressure drop in a heat pipe
must be less than or equal to the maximum capillary
pressure. The evaporation heat transfer reaches
maximum when the overall pressure drop is equal to
the capillary pumping pressure,

P
total
=P
cap


where: P
total
= P
v
+P
l
P
g

Capillary pressure becomes;





i) Liquid pressure drop


2
cap
p
P
r
o
=
5813.3
cap
P Pa =
Balewgize A. Zeru / Jimma Univeristy Annual Research Conference Proceedings, 1
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ii) Vapor pressure drop








The capillary limit; becomes





Properties at steady state operation:

Effective thermal conductivity,
eff
k






The heater is required to be kept below 80
o
C in which
most electronic components have good performance.
The vapour temperature inside the FPHP is equal to
the saturation temperature corresponding to the
measured working pressure. It becomes 65
o
C
(saturation temperature at 25kPa).
Taking the property of water at 65
o
C;
l
k =0.66W/mK,
s
k =401W/mK and | =32%
The effective thermal conductivity of the heat pipe
wick material becomes;

3.49 /
eff
k W mK =

Taking the properties of saturated water at steady
state operation:

, c v
A =4.2 x10
-3
m
2
,
, c l
A =0.272 x10
-3
m
2


Flow section perimeter =0.334m
, h v
D =0.05m
K=
13 2
9.57 10 x m

L
eff
=0.18m
h =0.035m, height of heat pipe
For rectangular passage of width =136mm and height
= 35mm, the ratio width to height becomes 0.238
resulting to the product of friction coefficient and
Reynolds number from graph as, ( Re) f =18.5, Chi
[12], pp. 40.

The capillary limit; becomes


,max
42.1
c
Q W = For against gravity operation

, max
47.3
c
Q W = For gravity assisted operation
of heat pipe.

3.2. Boiling Limit
Nucleate boiling, formation of vapor bubbles, in the
wick structure is undesirable because they can cause
hot spots and obstruct the circulation of the liquid.
Critical vapor bubble radius, r
b
, can be approximated
as:






The boiling limit becomes; A=0.007m
2
, area of
evaporator



5601
b
Q W =
3.3. Entrainment limit
Liquid short circuit:-When the heat pipe operates at
high heat flux, the counter current vapor flow may
entrain the liquid and carry it back to the condenser.




Substituting steady state property values;

Q
e
=235W


sin
l l
l
w fg l
dP
Q g
dx KA h

=
2
,
Re
2
v v v
h v v fg v
dP f
Q
dx r Ah
=
,
,
4
c v
h v
A
D
P
=
1
,max l 2
, , ,
2( Re) 1 2
v v l
c
eff c v h v c v fg l c l fg
f
Q gh
L r D A h K A h
o

(

= +
( `
( )

(1 )( )
(1 )( )
k k k k
s s
l l
k k
eff l
k k k k
s s
l l
|
|
+

=
`
+ +

)
2
( )exp{ [ ( )]/
b
sat l l l sat l g l l
r
P T v P P T R T P
o
=

7
2.54 10
b
r m

~
0.5
,
2
v
e v fg
h w
Q Ah
r
o
| |
=
|
|
\ .
l v cap
P P P =
,
2
eff v sat
b cap
fg v b
k T A
Q P
h r
o
o
| |
=
|
\ .
Balewgize A. Zeru / Jimma Univeristy Annual Research Conference Proceedings, 1
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(2010) 145-157
4. FPHP Construction

Flat plate heat pipe (FPHP) is recently developed
rectangular closed box like structure in which the
internal surfaces are lined with a wick material for
capillary pumping action. In this kind of heat pipe
either the top or the bottom surface can be as the
condenser section while some portion of the other
surface becomes the evaporator section, the height
of the box would be adiabatic section. The wick
material makes the FPHP works at different
orientations (adverse and favorable conditions of
gravity on liquid flow) with respect to the position
of the evaporator and condenser sections.

4. 1 Material selection
Container material: - Copper plate of 2mm thick is
used as a container material.
Wick material selection: - For the ease of sintering
wick material is selected as sintered bronze powder of
90% copper and 10% tin having an average powder
diameter of 45m.
Working fluid: - water is selected as the working
fluid based on container material, wick material and
working fluid compatibility and requirement for high
latent heat of vaporization, high surface tension, low
viscosity and wetability properties.
Fig.4.1. Sectional view of FPHP indicating sintered
bronze powder lined into internal surfaces.

4.2. Sintering process
Sintering process is done by manually spreading
2mm thick of bronze powder over a copper plate. No
pressure was applied in order to get a possibly higher
porosity for this specific powder size and sintering
temperature. Sintering is done at a temperature of
775
o
C in a furnace under the presence of nitrogen gas
to prevent the formation of oxide layer during
sintering. the temperature is increased slowly to
775
o
C in 30 minutes and constant temperature heating
was kept for another 30 minutes and the component
was allowed to cool slowly inside the furnace for 2
hours until the temperature reaches 400
o
C there after
it was cooled in the air by naturally. A small
specimen is cut for SEM (Scanning Electron
Microscope) analysis.



Fig.4.2. Sintered bronze over copper sheets cut into
size.

During sintering as in fig 4.2 a color change occurred
on the layer of the powder which is the result of
reaction between copper and nitrogen added forming
copper nitride layer. This layer cannot be removed
with bare hand or simple mechanical cleaning
without damaging the pores on the surface. Due to
copper softness chemical cleaning was not advisable
and this layer was left as it is for constructing the
FPHP. Also this may not affect the transfer of heat.

4.3. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)
SEM images, as in figures 4.3 to 4.4, are used to
measure the pore diameter and it was found that the
average pore diameter is 4m. The porosity is
measured by the method of water density method and
32% porosity is obtained.
Permeability is the capacity of a porous medium to
transmit fluids. It is related to measurable properties
of the pore geometry such as porosity, pore size
distribution, and internal surface area. A high
permeability value leads to low flow resistance in the
wick and thus to higher heat transfer rates. For
powder compacts used as wicks in heat pipes, the
permeability is found to be 9.57x10
-13
m
2
, can be
calculated from the following equation.

2 3
2
150(1 )
d
K
|
|
=

4.3.1. SEM specimen preparation
Balewgize A. Zeru / Jimma Univeristy Annual Research Conference Proceedings, 1
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(2010) 145-157

A small cut is taken from the sintered bronze powder
and it is polished first with fine and ultra fine sand
papers. Second; aluminum polishing and finally
diamond polishing is used. Different magnification
SEM analysis is used to obtain the pore diameter and
to observe the uniformity of the pores. SEM result
showed that 4m pore diameter and a uniform pore
distribution are achieved. It is also observed that a
good contact is obtained between the base metal and
the sintered bronze which satisfies the good contact
requirement for boiling phenomena.

4.3.2. SEM results


Fig.4.3. Surface pore structure of sintered bronze
powder 100x magnified using SEM.


Fig.4.4. Surface pore structure of sintered bronze
powder 250x magnified using SEM.

Fig.4.5. Task flow for constructing a heat pipe

TIG welding
After sintering process the FPHP is carefully
constructed by TIG welding using copper electrode
with a minimum electric power input to weld without
destroying the sintered layer as in figures 4.6(a) and
(b).

(a)


(b)
Fig.4.6. TIG welding to fabricate a flat plate heat pipe
from copper plate lined with sintered bronze powder
to internal surfaces.

5. EXPERIMENT SETUP

The set up contains FPHP at the center with a fan
provided at the opposite side of the condenser for
forced convection cooling as in Fig.5.1. The heat pipe
is provided with a vacuum gauge at the charging line
to observe the variation of absolute pressure inside
the heat pipe during operation. Measuring pressure
helps in directly to get the working temperature from
water saturation tables at the heat pipes absolute
Sintering of bronze at
775
o
C
Cut, machine and clean
envelope components
Bronze (Cu90-Sn10%)
powder preparation, average
diameter45m
Machine and clean fill
tube
Cleaning of envelop parts
Welding of components and
fill tube, TIG welding
Evacuation and charging
Measure
Distilled water
Final close off filler tube
Performance test
Balewgize A. Zeru / Jimma Univeristy Annual Research Conference Proceedings, 1
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(2010) 145-157
pressure. Charging line contains charging bottle
having reading divisions and vacuum pump provided
with three diaphragm control valves. Valve V1 is to
separate the FPHP after charging process is
completed.












Fig.5.1. Experimental set up of a FPHP with pressure
gauge to measure the operating temperature variation
(against gravity operation indicated).

Thermocouples are taken from surfaces and
connected to a data acquisition unit and to computer
system for analysis. Variable input power to the
heater is given by using a variable voltage
transformer. The electrical heater is fixed to the
evaporator section by using a high temperature heat
sink paste and tied around.

i. Thermocouples
Total numbers of 17 T type thermocouples are used
to measure surface temperature at evaporator,
condenser, adiabatic surfaces and heat loss through
the insulation material.

Fig.5.2. Numbering and position of thermocouples.

ii. Fixing thermocouples: -High temperature cement
is used to fix thermocouples to surfaces as in Fig.5.3
and Fig.5.4 where temperature is being measured.
The thermal conductivity of this copper cement at
260
o
C is 1.15 W/mK.



Fig.5.3. Evaporator side of FPHP polished to get
good contact with the heater.

iii. Heater
Aluminum embedded electric resistance heater of
140x50x16mm (Specially manufactured by order) as
in Fig.5.5 is used to achieve variable input heat flux
at the evaporator. The heater has a resistance of
72.5.

Fig.5.4. Aluminum embedded electrical resistance
heater with thermocouples fixed on it.

The heater is fixed to the evaporator section as in
Fig.5.5 using Armstrong heat sink paste to enhance
the heat transfer. Heat sink paste of 0.8mm thick is
used to fill the air gap between the two surfaces.


Fig.5.5. Fixing flat heater to the FPHP

He
ater
V
2
Vacu
um
gaug
e

Vari
able
volt
age
sup
ply
Data
acquisiti
on unit
Power
supply
Vac
uum
pum
p
Distilled water
charging bottle
with divisions
divisioions
Therm
ocoupl
e lines
V
3
V
1
P
C

FP
HP
Acquisitio
n Unit
Acquisition
Unit
PC
Vacuum
Pump
Variac
Power
Supply
Vac.
gauge
V
2
Vacu
um
gaug
e

Vari
able
volt
age
sup
ply
Data
acquisiti
on unit
Power
supply
Vac
uum
pum
p
Distilled water
charging bottle
with divisions
divisioions
Therm
ocoupl
e lines
V
3
V
1
P
C

FP
HP

Acquisition
Unit
PC
Vacuum
Pump
Variac
Power
Supply
Vac.
Gauge
3Valves
Balewgize A. Zeru / Jimma Univeristy Annual Research Conference Proceedings, 1
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(2010) 145-157
iv. Insulation

As it is seen in Fig.5.2 all surfaces of the FPHP,
except the condenser and the evaporator areas, are
insulated with 4mm glass wool for adiabatic sides and
the heater is insulated with 50mm thick glass wool.
Glass wool insulation is achieved by preparing a box
of 4mm wider than the FPHP at each four sides and
50mm higher at the heater element, and glass wool is
packed with out compacting into these clearances
which results good high temperature insulation.

v. Evacuation and working fluid charging:

Working fluid is required to transfer heat at a
working temperature of 65
o
C with a saturation
pressure of 22.5inHg gauge (absolute pressure of
7.5inHg or 25kPa). The procedures followed to
achieve this working temperature during charging are
as follows:
The FPHP is evacuated to a vacuum pressure level of
0.05mbar. The heat pipe evacuation is done by
opening the valve V1 and valve V2 while V3 kept
closed by using triple vacuum technique.
After evacuation valve V2 is closed and valve V3 is
opened to allow distilled water passes up to V1 and
air bubbles are removed by slowly opening V2 until
continuous discharging of water is observed (purging
the air bubbles present in the charging line). After the
bubbles are removed valve, V2 is closed.
Charging is done by opening V1 to allow 60ml (20%
overcharge) of distilled water in to FPHP by
observing readings directly from the bottle.
The FPHP is separated from the charging line by
closing valve V1.

vi. Working fluid inventory

It is assumed that the wick is full of saturated liquid
and the vapor space is full of saturated vapor. Mass of
working fluid required can be calculated as:


Where: V
w
, V
v
are total volume of wick and volume
of vapor space respectively






Volume of water required at 65
o
C = 47ml
vii. Experimental procedure

The heat pipe is tested under both gravity assisted and
against gravity to make sure that it works under any
orientation. Variable heat flux is supplied to the
heater step by step until it reaches the limiting factor.
This is repeated under two condenser cooling
conditions which are free convection and forced
convection. The FPHP operation is compared by
running a test without working fluid charged so that it
would be easy to observe the heat pipe cooling effect
and as well the performance of heat spreading.
Keeping the heater temperature at 80
o
C is taken as the
objective of the heat pipe and the maximum ability to
transport heat from the evaporator to the condenser is
measured.

6. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND
DISCUSSION
Limitations of the FPHP, constructed indigenously,
are calculated and its heat spreading performance is
obtained experimentally in agreement with the
theoretical calculations. The heater is kept at a
constant temperature of 80
o
C and a maximum heat
flux of 7.1kW/m
2
is achieved. The FPHP is limited by
capillary action attributed to low permeability of the
wick material used. The condenser is cooled by free
convection and forced convection.
The following discussion gives details of the results
obtained experimentally and comparison with the
available literature results are presented.
Heater temperature, condenser temperature and
temperature near to the evaporator section is used to
characterize the operation of the FPHP. Figure 6.2
shows transient characteristics of the FPHP at it
maximum capacity 7.1kW/m
2
in which the heater
temperature reaches 74
o
C while condenser
temperature is at 45
o
C. Point 14 (located 3mm from
the heater) is taken to measure the temperature near
the evaporator obtained as 57
o
C. At this maximum
flux 48W of heat was dissipated. At this heat flux the
steady state is reached at 50 minutes. The working
fluid temperature is 65
o
C obtained by taking
saturation temperature of the measured pressure is
25kPa.
As the heat input is further increased to 8.1kW/m
2
the
heater surface temperature is observed to increase
above 80
o
C as in Fig.6.3. It can be concluded that the
FPHP maximum heat spreading capacity is
7.1kW/m
2
. From the heat pipe capacity prediction the
capillary limit is 47.3W which is in total agreement
3 3
0.32 971.8 0.146 10 0.293 0.759 10
0.0456
45.6
m x x x x x kg
m kg
m mg

= +
=
=
l w v v
m V V | = +
Balewgize A. Zeru / Jimma Univeristy Annual Research Conference Proceedings, 1
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(2010) 145-157
with the experimental result obtained with 0.7W loss
through insulations.
Heat flux input versus the heater surface temperature
is plotted in Fig.6.7 indicating a direct increase with
the input heat flux. The variation is equated in a
linear fit and it becomes;

T
h
= 5.770 '' q + 34.519 [
o
C]

Experimental Results


Fig.6.1. FPHP characteristics, gravity assisted,
condenser cooled by a fan.

Fig.6.2. FPHP characteristics, gravity assisted,
condenser cooled by a fan.



Fig.6.3. FPHP characteristics, gravity assisted,
condenser cooled by a fan.


Fig.6.4. FPHP characteristics, gravity assisted,
condenser cooled by a fan.



Fig.6.5. FPHP performance (Heater temperature) at
different heat fluxes [in kW/m
2
], gravity assisted,
condenser cooled by a fan.
Balewgize A. Zeru / Jimma Univeristy Annual Research Conference Proceedings, 1
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Fig.6.6. Temperature distribution at the condenser
side thermocouples at 7.1kW/m
2
heat flux input
(gravity assisted, fan cooled condenser).



Fig..6.7. Heat flux vs. maximum heater temperature.



Fig.6.8. Comparison of condenser temperature in
gravity assisted (GA) and against gravity (AG)
operation of FPHP.

Condenser surface temperature uniformity is
compared in Fig.6.6. The condenser surface directly
exposed to the vapor lifting from the evaporator
shows greater reading than other surfaces, a
maximum temperature difference of 5
o
C.
Water charged in FPHP is compared with an
evacuated FPHP at 4.93kW/m
2
input heat flux; the
empty heat pipe was evacuated to 0.05mbar to
decrease the air resistance inside the free space for
radiation heat transfer. The results show that the
heater temperature is higher in case of empty and its
condenser temperature is smaller than FPHP charged
with working fluid. Temperature measured near
evaporator at point 14 is found to be larger in case of
empty FPHP which is the effect of conduction from
high temperature heater. The comparison is found to
be same in both gravity assisted and against gravity
operations of the FPHP. Heat pipes operation in both
orientations of gravity assisted and against gravity
appears to be satisfactory as in Fig.6.8.

From this comparison and above performance results,
it can be concluded that the FPHP constructed locally
is working properly and all the theories and
limitations are in agreement. The maximum heat
spreading performance is enhanced to 7.1kW/m
2
by
using forced convection at the condenser side, which
was 1.4kW/m
2
, achieved by K. Vafai [2].

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