Experimental study of small diameter fibres as wick material for capillary-driven heat pipes

For the gravity-assisted orientation, the screen mesh wick clearly outperforms the fibre and sintered powder wick, due to its higher permeability and better ability to distribute the working fluid over the circumference of the wick. For the gravity-opposed orientation, the fibre and screen mesh heat pipe perform equally well. Both have a lower thermal resistance than the sintered powder heat pipe, as the small diameter fibres and fine mesh create more and very small capillary channels in comparison with the sintered powder wick. As this is an initial test, without any prior optimization of the wick, metal fibres show great potential as a future wick material for high performance heat pipes.