Thermal Performance of the Thin Heat Pipe for Cooling of Solid-State Drives

Abstract

With the rapid development of information science and technology, the demand for computer data processing is increasing, resulting in the rapid growth of the demand for high-power and high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs). The stable operation of SSDs plays an important role in ensuring the reliable working conditions and appropriate temperature of information technology equipment, rack servers, and related facilities. However, SSDs usually have significant heat emissions, putting forward higher requirements for temperature and humidity control, and consequently the heat sink system for cooling is essential to maintain the proper working state of SSDs. In this paper, a new type of thin heat pipe (THP) heat sink is proposed, and the heat transfer performance and cooling effect are experimentally and numerically studied. The numerical results are compared with experimental results, which showed an error within 5%. Single and double heat pipes were investigated under different input powers (from 5 W to 50 W) and different placement angles between 0° and 90°. The heat transfer performance of the new heat sink is analyzed by the startup performance, the evaporator temperature, and the total thermal resistance. The results show that the new double THPs with a 90° angle have a great advantage in the heat transfer performance of SSDs. The research is of great significance for the design and optimization of the SSDs’ cooling system in practical applications.