Energies, Vol. 18, Pages 4247: Comparison Study of Novel Flat Evaporator Loop Heat Pipes with Different Types of Condensation Pipeline
Energies doi: 10.3390/en18164247
Authors:
Kangning Xiong
Yang Liu
Zhuoyu Li
Qingsong Pan
Chip-level cooling has become a thermal bottleneck in next-generation data centers. Although previous studies have optimized evaporator wick structures, they are limited to a single condensation path and ignore the combined effects of the loop heat pipe (LHP) orientation on the capillary wick (CW) replenishment and reflux subcooling. To bridge this gap, this study successfully designed an innovative flat-plate evaporator water-cooled LHP with a parallel condensation pipeline. Experiments were conducted with a 20 °C coolant and at a 4 L/min flow rate across nine orientations. The heat transfer characteristics of LHPs with parallel and series condensation pipelines were compared. The analysis focused on the relationship between the working fluid (WF) replenishment of the CW and the WF reflux temperature in the compensating chamber (CC). The experimental results demonstrated that the parallel condensation LHP could sustainably dissipate 750 W without thermal runaway. At this power, the minimum junction temperature of 82.34 °C was measured at orientation 2 (+60°). For low power and at the nine orientations, the series LHP generally had lower temperatures. However, when the power exceeded 600 W, the parallel LHP showed lower temperatures at orientations 1 (+90°), 2 (+60°), and 3 (+30°). At orientation 9, the parallel LHP had lower temperatures when the power surpassed 200 W. Theoretical analysis indicated that the orientation changes affected the heat transfer via the WF reflux temperature, reflux resistance, and CW replenishment rate. Furthermore, the LHP system we developed in this study is capable of fully satisfying the cooling requirements of data center server chips.