Superposition method to investigate the thermal performance of heat sink with embedded heat pipes

Abstract

This article utilizes the thermal performance experiment with superposition method to investigate the thermal performance of heat sinks with one and two pairs of embedded heat pipes. A heat sink with embedded heat pipes transfers the total heat capacity from the heat source to both the base plate and heat pipes, and then disperses heat into the surrounding air via the forced convection. The heat capacity carried by embedded heat pipes can be found using the thermal resistance analytical approach stated in this article. The results show that two and four heat pipes embedded in the base plate carry 36% and 48% of the total dissipated heat respectively; in addition, when the total heating power of the heat sink with two embedded heat pipes is 140 W, the total thermal resistance reaches its minimum value of 0.27 °C/W, while for the heat sink with four embedded heat pipes, when the total heating power is between 40 W and 240 W, the total thermal resistance is 0.24 °C/W, meaning that the thermal performance is better than that of heat sink with two embedded heat pipes.