Investigation of the thermal performance of a novel flat heat pipe sink with multiple heat sources

A novel flat heat pipe sink with multi-heat sources (a heat sink configured with four flat heat pipes) has been developed and fabricated in this work. Compared with conventional heat sink, the novelty of this passive heat transfer device is capable of realizing high heat transport performance. Experimental investigation was systematically conducted to test and evaluate the thermal performance of the novel flat heat pipe sink. Thermal resistance, maximum heat transport capacity and heat dissipation capacity of the novel flat heat pipe sink are among the main operating parameters that are qualitatively studied and analyzed. The experimental results showed that overall thermal resistance of the heat sink was reduced with increasing the multi-heat sources. The minimum thermal resistance of 0.103 °C/W appeared in the case of three heat sources, air flow rate of 4.5 m/s and inclination angle of 90°. Similar to the thermal resistance, increasing number of heat sources resulted in an increase of the maximum heat transport capacity. Meanwhile the maximum heat transport capacity and heat dissipation capacity of the heat sink were significantly improved. Furthermore, when operating temperature was controlled at 65 °C, the novel heat sink could still transport heat flux of nearly 400 W, which showed its high heat flux transportation in heat dissipation of compact electronic devices.