Capillary force of a novel skew-grooved wick structure for micro heat pipes

Abstract

In order to improve the capillary force of grooved wick, a novel skew-grooved wick structure was proposed for micro heat pipes. Risen meniscus experiments were carried out to research the capillary force of the skew-grooved and rectangle-grooved wick and a comparison of capillarity between the two wick structures was explored. A theoretical capillary force model of skew-grooved wick structure was also developed to calculate its effective capillary radius by comparing with the rectangle-grooved wick. From the experimental results, the maximum capillary force of the skewed-grooved wick is 8.62% larger than that of the rectangle-grooved wick. From the theoretical analysis, because the skewed-grooved wick has a smaller effective capillary radius, its maximum capillary force is 8.64% larger than that of the rectangle-grooved wick. The results indicate that the skew-grooved wick provides larger capillary force than the rectangle-grooved wick.

Keywords

skew-grooved wick / micro heat pipe / capillary force / effective capillary radius

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