Thermal perfomance of additively manufactured heat pipes

Abstract

This work studies experimentally the performance of an additively manufactured heat pipe with a triangular cross-section and grooved wick that uses acetone as the heat transfer fluid. The temperature time evolution at different axial positions of the heat pipe was measured for different heat transfer rates and fluid filling inventories. The experimental data analysis includes calculating heat losses and estimating the steady-state temperature, which has been shown to be critical for determining the thermal resistance and time constant accurately. We also propose a methodology to estimate the response time of the heat pipe to sudden changes in the thermal power demand. The presented prototype is able to evacuate up to 17 W in horizontal position with a thermal resistance lower than 1 K/W.