Study of the heat transfer performance of a loop heat pipe with aluminum wick

Abstract

This study used aluminum (Al) powder as a raw material to fabricate a wick for loop heat pipes (LHPs) by the powder metallurgy method and took advantage of the excellent corrosion resistance, low density and low cost of Al. The average pore diameter, porosity and permeability of the Al wicks were 9 ?m, 47.65%, and 2.1?10-13 m-2, respectively. Then, to verify the feasibility of the Al wick, it was installed into a LHP to test the heat transfer performance. The experimental results showed that the LHP could transport a heating load of 130 W with a thermal resistance of 0.04 KW-1 under horizontal condition. A steady-state LHP mathematical model was developed, and the numerical results were compared with the experimental data. The results show that the model data are consistent with the experimental data, which means that Al wicks are suitable for use in the case of a high heating load and light weight.