A novel coaxial heat pipe with an inner vapor tube for cooling high power electronic devices

Improving heat transfer limit of heat pipe is important for their application in high-power equipment system. Shear stress at the liquid–vapor interface affects the heat transfer capacity of heat pipe. In this study, a novel coaxial heat pipe is designed to eliminate vapor entrainment from interfacial shear stress for the first time. An inner thin-walled tube is sintered with the powder wick in the adiabatic section by one-step sintering process. The effects of filling ratio and powder size of sintered wick on the thermal performance of coaxial heat pipe are investigated experimentally. The results indicate that the optimal powder size range for the sintered wick of coaxial heat pipe is 106–125 μm, while the optimal filling ratio is about 125 %. It means that the sintered wick with 106–125 μm powder can achieve better trade-off between capillary performance and permeability. The coaxial heat pipe can operate at heat loads of 70 ∼ 140 W with the total thermal resistance less than 0.06 °C /W. Moreover, compared with the normal heat pipe, the heat transfer capacity of coaxial heat pipe is increased by 57 %, while the evaporation temperature is decreased by 9.6 ∼ 19.1 °C and the total thermal resistance is decreased by 41 %∼320 %. The inner tube can improve the replenishment efficiency of working liquid by eliminating interfacial shear stress, resulting in the significant heat transfer improvement. The design of coaxial heat pipe is an effective and low-cost solution to improve the thermal performance of heat pipe.