Experimental Study of Composite Heat Pipe Radiator in Thermal Management of Electronic Components

Abstract

Conventional straight fin (SF) radiators have difficulties meeting the cooling requirements of high-power electronic components. Therefore, based on the structure and technology of the detachable fin radiator, this paper proposes a kind of radiator embedded in the heat pipe base and uses the roll-bond flat heat pipe (RBFHP) to replace the traditional fin. The radiator has the advantages of modularity, easy manufacturing, low cost and good heat balance. In this study, the heat pipes (HPs)-RBFHPs radiator was tested in natural convection and forced convection to mimic the actual application scenario and compared with the conventional aluminum radiator. Heating power, angle, wind speed and other aspects were studied. The results showed that the cooling performance of the HPs-RBFHPs radiator was improved by 10.7% to 55% compared with that of the SF radiator under different working conditions. The minimum total thermal resistance in the horizontal state was only 0.37 °C/W. The temperature equalization of the base played a dominant role in the performance of the radiator at a large angle, and the fin group could be ineffective when the angle was greater than 60°. Under the most economical conditions with an inclination of 0° and a wind speed of 2 m/s, the input power was 340 W, the heat source temperature of the HPs-RBFHPs was only 64.2 °C, and the heat dissipation performance was 55.4% higher than that of SFs.