Experimental and theoretical research on capillary limit of micro heat pipe with compound structure of sintered wick on trapezium-grooved substrate

Since heat flux increases sharply yet cooling space in microelectronic and chemical products gradually decreases, a micro heat pipe has been an ideal device for heat transfer for high heat-flux products, and its performance depends largely on its capillary limit. This study proposed an integrated utilization of the advantages of lower backflow resistance to working fluid in trapezium-grooved-wick micro heat pipes and greater capillary force in sintered-wick micro heat pipes; first the factors that are crucial to both types’ heat transfer performances were analyzed, and then mathematical modeling was built for capillary limit of a micro heat pipe with the compound structure of sintered wick on trapezium-grooved substrate, and finally heat transfer limits for micro heat pipes with a trapezium-grooved wick, a sintered wick and with a compound structure were tested through experiments. Both the theoretical analysis and experimental results show that for a micro heat pipe with proposed compound structure, its capillary limit is superior to that of a micro heat pipe with a simplex sintered wick or trapezium-grooved wick.