An Investigation of Evaporation Heat Transfer in Sintered Copper Wicks With Microgrooves

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study on the parameters that determine the thermal performance of sintered copper wicks with longitudinal micro grooves for heat pipe applications. The grooves, which provide passages to vent vapor, have a width in a range from 150 μm to 500 μm. The copper powder used here has a nominal diameter of 50 μm, which produces an effective pore radius of approximately 13 μm. The main wicks composed of pores and grooves present characteristics of bi-dispersed wick structures. Unlike traditional bi-dispersed wick structures, the sintered grooved wick structures provide undisrupted longitudinal liquid delivery passages and thus improve the boiling limit. Performance of the wick structures with distilled water was examined and the effects of the heat flux and groove geometries on the evaporation/boiling heat transfer performance were studied.