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Home > Thermal Basics > Heat Pipe Technology
Heat Pipe Technology:
Passive Heat Transfer for Greater Efficiency
Heat pipes offer high effective thermal conductivities (5,000 Watts/metre·K to 200,000 Watts/metre·K), energy-efficiency, light weight, low cost and the flexibility of many different size and shape options. As passive heat transfer systems, heat pipes offer simple and reliable operation, with high effective thermal conductivity, no moving parts, ability to transport heat over long distances and quiet vibration-free operation.
 Heat pipes transfer heat more efficiently and evenly than solid conductors such as aluminium or copper because of their lower total thermal resistance. The heat pipe is filled with a small quantity of working fluid (water, acetone, nitrogen, methanol, ammonia or sodium). Heat is absorbed by vaporising the working fluid. The vapour transports heat to the condenser region where the condensed vapour releases heat to a cooling medium. The condensed working fluid is returned to the evaporator by gravity, or by the heat pipe's wick structure, creating capillary action. Both cylindrical and planar heat pipe variants have an inner surface lined with a capillary wicking material.
What is a Heat Pipe?
Heat pipes are the most common passive, capillary-driven of the two-phase systems. Two-phase heat transfer involves the liquid-vapour phase change (boiling/evaporation and condensation) of a working fluid. The heat pipe technology industry leader, Thermacore has specialised in the design, development and manufacturing of passive, two-phase heat transfer devices since 1970.
Heat pipes have an extremely effective high thermal conductivity. While solid conductors such as aluminium, copper, graphite and diamond have thermal conductivities ranging from 250 W/m•K to 1,500 W/m•K, heat pipes have effective thermal conductivities that range from 5,000 W/m•K to 200,000 W/m•K. Heat pipes transfer heat from the heat source (evaporator) to the heat sink (condenser) over relatively long distances through the latent heat of vaporisation of a working fluid. Heat pipes typically have 3 sections: an evaporator section (heat input/source), adiabatic (or transport) section and a condenser section (heat output/sink).
Key Components of a Heat Pipe
The three major components of a heat pipe include:
- A vacuum tight, sealed containment shell or vessel
- Working fluid
- Capillary wick structure
They all work together to transfer heat more efficiently and evenly. The wick structure lines the inner surface of the heat pipe shell and is saturated with the working fluid. The wick provides the structure to develop the capillary action for the liquid returning from the condenser (heat output/sink) to the evaporator (heat input/source). Since the heat pipe contains a vacuum, the working fluid will boil and take up latent heat at well below its boiling point at atmospheric pressure. Water, for instance, will boil at just above 273° K (0°C) and start to effectively transfer latent heat at this low temperature.
Heat pipes can be constructed from a variety of different materials. Thermacore has constructed heat pipes from aluminium, copper, titanium, monel, stainless steel, inconel and tungsten. The most common for electronics cooling applications is copper. The choice of heat pipe containment material is largely dependent on the compatibility with the working fluid.
Thermacore has designed, developed and manufactured heat pipes using over 27 different working fluids. The heat pipe working fluid chosen depends on the operating temperature range of the application. Working fluids range from liquid helium for extremely low temperature applications (-271°C) to silver (>2,000°C) for extremely high temperatures. The most common heat pipe working fluid is water for an operating temperature range from 1°C to 325°C. Low temperature heat pipes use fluids like ammonia and nitrogen. High temperature heat pipes utilize cesium, potassium, NaK and sodium (873–1,473°K).
| Heat Pipe Working Fluid | Operating Temperature Range (°C) | Heat Pipe Shell Material |
| Low Temperature or Cryogenic Heat Pipe Working Fluids |
| Carbon Dioxide |
-50 to 30 |
Aluminium, Stainless Steel, Titanium |
| Helium |
-271 to -269 |
Stainless Steel, Titanium |
| Hydrogen |
-260 to -230 |
Stainless Steel |
| Methane |
-180 to -100 |
Stainless Steel |
| Neon |
-240 to -230 |
Stainless Steel |
| Nitrogen |
-200 to -160 |
Stainless Steel |
| Oxygen |
-210 to -130 |
Aluminium, Titanium |
| Mid Range Heat Pipe Working Fluids |
| Acetone |
-48 to 125 |
Aluminium, Stainless Steel |
| Ammonia |
-75 to 125 |
Aluminium, Stainless Steel |
| Ethane |
-150 to 25 |
Aluminium |
| Methanol |
-75 to 120 |
Copper, Stainless Steel |
| Methylamine |
-90 to 125 |
Aluminium |
| Pentane |
-125 to 125 |
Aluminum, Stainless Steel |
| Propylene |
-150 to 60 |
Aluminium, Stainless Steel |
| Water |
1 to 325 |
Copper, Monel, Nickel, Titanium |
| High Temperature Heat Pipe Fluids |
| Cesium |
350 to 925 |
Stainless Steel, Inconel, Haynes |
| NaK |
425 to 825 |
Stainless Steel, Inconel, Haynes |
| Potassium |
400 to 1,025 |
Stainless Steel, Inconel, Haynes |
| Sodium |
500 to 1,225 |
Stainless Steel, Inconel, Haynes |
| Lithium |
925 to 1,825 |
Tungsten, Niobium |
| Silver |
1,625 to 2,025 |
Tungsten, Molybdenum |
The heat pipe wick structure is a structure that uses capillaries to move the liquid working fluid from condenser back to the evaporator section. Heat pipe wick structures are constructed from various materials and methods. The most common heat pipe wick structures include: axially grooves on the inner heat pipe vessel wall, screen/wire and “sintered powder metal.” Other advanced heat pipe wick structures include arteries, bi-dispersed sintered powder and composite wick structures.
Thermacore manufactures all of the common wick structures, as well as the advanced wick structures. However, Thermacore specializes in a "sintered powder metal" wick structure that allows the heat pipe to provide the highest heat flux capability, greatest degree of gravitational orientation insensitivity and freeze/thaw tolerance.
Groove Wick |
Screen/Woven Wick |
Sintered Powder Wick |
Embedded heat pipe designs give you enhanced performance for existing heat sinks (by up to 50%) with minimal design changes.
Vapor chamber heat sinks, like our Therma-Base® vapor spreader, alleviate spreading resistance and accept higher heat fluxes than traditional solid heat sinks when used as the base of a heat sink.
Isolated Therma-Charge® units are designed for electrical isolation. They can insulate several thousand volts of electricity. Various sizes and configurations of these thermal heat pipes are available, or you can get a custom heat pipe specification.
Therma-Tower® heat pipe technology uses a wick structure and vertical cooling fins to give you maximum heat dissipation with minimum footprint.
Therma-Loop® loop heat pipes have no wick structure in the liquid and vapor lines. They're ideal for applications where the distance from heat source to condenser makes conventional heat pipes impractical, or application has high gravitation forces or shock and vibration isolation requirements.
Axially grooved heat pipes are low temperature heat pipes using fluids such as ammonia and propylene used for spreading heat over extended distances for applications such as satellite thermal control.
Isothermal Furnace Liners (IFLs), are high temperature heat pipes used for creating uniform or isothermal temperatures for applications such as Thermocouple Calibration and Semiconductor Crystal Growth.
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