Applied Thermal Engineering 163 (2019) 114267

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Experimental investigation of flat porous heat pipe for cooling TV box T

electronic chips
K. Zegharia, H. Louahliaa, , S. Le Massonb
⁎

a
Normandy University, Unicaen-LUSAC, Site Universitaire Bellevue, 50000 Saint Lô, France
b
Orange Labs, 2 Avenue Pierre Marzin, 22307 Lannion, France

HIGHLIGHTS

• Heat pipe temperature and response time are influenced by the hysteresis phenomenon.
• Ascending heat flux crenel enables lower vapor temperature but more start up delay.
• Heat pipe could be used as an efficient alternative solution for cooling electronic chips.
• Hot air from fans crosses and heats the other electronic components.

ABSTRACT

In this study, a porous wick copper flat heat pipe is investigated in horizontal position. The hysteresis phenomenon shows that the heat flux increase enables lower
vapor temperatures and more transient state delay 840 s at 5 W compared to the heat flux decrease. Working fluid filling ratios effects on the cooling performance
were examined including temperatures distribution, heat pipe thermal resistances and effective thermal conductivity. The fill ratio of 25% is found to be the optimal
charge, for which the maximum effective thermal conductivity was about 891 W/mK at 7 W input load. Experimental results and figure of limit factors show that n-
pentane be the optimal working fluid comparing to the other studied fluids.
The application of the studied heat pipe in cooling a television box is investigated by comparing the conventional cooling solution using fans and a passive cooling
configuration using the flat heat pipe. Experimental results show that heat pipe is an efficient alternative passive cooling device which enables cooling all electronic
components of the television box.

1. Introduction Cooling techniques can be classified into two techniques [2]; tra-
ditional cooling techniques: Radiation and free convection, forced air-
Recently, the miniaturization of electronic components inquiring cooling, forced liquid cooling, liquid evaporation [10], and emerging
higher power led to an increasing need for heat flux dissipation in a cooling techniques: Heat pipes [11], phase change material (PCM)
small space. Since the invention of transistors and the introduction of based cooling [12–14], Microchannels [15], thermoelectric cooling
integrated circuits, the number of components packed in a single chip [16], free cooling [17]. Yet, traditional cooling techniques remain
has been increasing steadily, this led to high heat level generation sufficiently incapable to cool modern electronic devices and chips with
which removal becomes a major concern regarding the performance high power densities, unlike emerging cooling techniques which have
and reliability of the electronic devices. As specified by the interna- showed an interesting prospects for cooling those electronics.
tional technology roadmap for semiconductors [1], the typical sta- These arising cooling systems are classified into passive and active
tionary chip consumption will reach over 400 W by 2020 and 800 W by types [18]. While active cooling is based on the use of pump or com-
2026. This, combined with the fact that many cooling techniques re- pressor for fluid circulation, passive cooling relies on capillary and
main partially efficient within cost limitation [2–6], requires devel- gravitational forces for fluid circulation without energy consumption
oping high performance thermal management solutions to cool high- which attracted more researchers attention.
power compact electronic devices. Consequently, a large variety of The active cooling techniques dissipate excess heat from the elec-
cooling systems have been studied to maintain an acceptable operating tronics into the surrounding, whereas, they consume more power for
temperature, stability and lifespan [7–9]. cooling liquids and other moving components, which further

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hasna.louahlia@unicaen.fr (H. Louahlia).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.114267
Received 25 March 2019; Received in revised form 16 July 2019; Accepted 16 August 2019
Available online 20 September 2019
1359-4311/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
K. Zeghari, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 163 (2019) 114267

Nomenclature Cp heat capacity (kJ/kg·K)

GWP global warming potential
A area (m2) ODP ozone depletion potential
L length (m) L distance between evaporator and condenser section (m)
W width (m)
H height (m) Subscripts
P pressure (Pa)
T temperature (°C) e evaporator
z absciss (m) a adiabatic
R thermal resistance (K/W) c condenser
fill ratio vap vapor
V volume (ml) l liquid
Q heat load (W) amb ambient
K thermal conductivity (W/m K) sys heat pipe system
t time (s) eff effective
hlv latent heat (kJ/kg) as ascending
liquid surface tension (N/m) ds descending
µ dynamic viscosity (Pa/s) ct contact
density (kg/m3)

complicate the system [19]. They do not match the demand from the transport of axially grooved ammonia heat pipe: for an increase in the
systems with a high thermal dissipation. Air cooling systems for in- evaporator length from 42 mm to 500 mm, the maximum heat transport
stance are disadvantaged by acoustic noise generation, electrical power increases from 42 W to 105.3 W, and the variation of length of the
consumption, weight addition, and periodic maintenance requirements evaporator from 125 mm to 375 mm induces a heat load increase from
[20,21]. Xu et al. [22] predicted numerically the heat transfer limita- 55.8 W to 89.4 W. On the other hand, for heat pipes thermal char-
tion of air cooling 340 W at a temperature range of 90 °C using a acteristics prediction, many researchers have studied simplified models
100 cm2 heat sink, and stated that semi-active systems using air-to-air [33,34].Wang et al. [35] investigated the application of L-type heat
heat exchangers and thermoelectric coolers are extensively used for the pipe for electronic cooling. They described the design, modeled and
telecommunications cabinets cooling. However, they consume a large tested a heat sink with the embedded L-shaped heat pipe. Results of the
amount of electric energy. Also, liquid cooling involves a great potential studied heat sink with six heat pipes show that the heat sink will carry
of heat dissipation but brings about reliability concerns because of 160 W and reaches a minimum thermal resistance of 0.22 °C/W which
eventual leakage [23]. Thus, Passive cooling systems arose as an in- is 5% less than the predicted value from the proposed mathematical
novative solution due to their ability of withstanding high heat fluxes model. Mani [36] investigated experimentally a flat heat pipe using
with low working fluid charge, automatic controlling system tempera- water, methanol, ethanol and acetone as working fluids within different
ture, and working with a minimum energy consumption and less noise heat fluxes.
[21]. Yet, many authors studied the influence of heat pipes heat transfer
Therefore, there has been an increasing interest in the use of heat limitations. Nemec et al. [37] studied graphic dependencies of heat pipe
pipes as a promising mean of cooling electronic devices as computer, performance from the position of the sintered wick, groove width, ca-
electronic cards, telecommunication and satellite components [24]. In pillary structure and porosity using different refrigerants at operating
fact, heat pipes are extensively used for cooling laptops processors, temperatures from −30 °C to 140 °C. The impact of these limits on the
Chen et al. [25] presented a detailed review on design, fabrication and cooling power has been investigated based on the developed mathe-
performance analysis of miniature heat pipes for electronics cooling. matical model. More recent studies have been carried out on heat pipes,
Heat pipe is actually an efficient passive cooling device with high Chen et al. [38] developed a thermal resistance model of the heat pipe
thermal conductance able to transport large amount of energy using the with traditional 1D and Q2D methods. The Q2D is proved to reach a
recurrent evaporation-condensation processes. The basic structure of a better accuracy of prediction than 1D method. Alijani et al. [39] tested
heat pipe incorporates a partially filled tube or flat with a working fluid experimentally four fabricated aluminum flat grooved heat pipes with
that vaporizes in the heated zone causing the vapor to move to the cold groove widths of 0.2, 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6 mm using different heat loads 2.1,
zone where it is condensed. The condensate returns to the hot interface 3.2, 4.2 and 5.3 W/cm. They showed that the heat pipe effectiveness
through capillary action. increases with groove density preferably narrower grooves and drops
Several investigations have been conducted to characterize the with increasing heat flux. Other experimental study to characterize the
thermal and hydrodynamic performances of heat pipes particularly thermal performance of a heat pipe is achieved by Mahdavi [40]. He
miniature heat pipes used for cooling of electronics. In 1984, Cotter investigated the impact of input heat, working fluid fill ratio and in-
[26] proposed a micro-heat pipe concept which was designed to make a clination angle on the thermal performance including temperature
uniform temperature distribution. Peterson [27] indicated that the distribution. Furthermore, flat plate heat pipe has been investigated for
longitudinal grooves design inside the heat pipe is a key parameter cooling electronic devices, Harmand et al. [41] investigated the thermal
keeping the uniformity of temperature distribution and the high per- performance of the heat pipe set in a starter alternator during transient
formance. Several studies are conducted on the architectural structure state and showed its ability to avoid hot points in complex geometries.
of the grooves: trapezoidal [28], rectangular [29], triangular [27], and Sonan et al. [42] coupled the fluid flow regarding the vapor and liquid
sinusoidal [30]. The effective length is the second critical parameter phases with heat transfer through heat pipe walls and showed that the
influencing heat transfer in heat pipes and the maximum heat dissipa- flat porous heat pipe worked efficiently as a good thermal spreader.
tion. Hopkins et al. [31] proposed an analytical model where the ef- Boukhanouf et al. [43] studied experimentally a Cu-water porous flat
fective length is studied as a crucial parameter affecting heat pipe heat pipe and demonstrated that its thermal resistance is much lower
performances. Since the effective length comprises the evaporator than a solid copper block affording then better thermal performance.
length, Anand [32] investigated the effect of evaporator length on heat Chen and Chou [44] investigated the effect of different filling ratios in a

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K. Zeghari, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 163 (2019) 114267

flat plate heat pipe. They demonstrated that 25% is the best filling ratio 2.2. Heat pipe instrumentation
with the lowest thermal conductivity 0.254 K/W and the maximum
heat transport was about 47 W. For startup in heat pipes, many studies The heat pipe has been instrumented with multiple thermocouples
have been presented either through mathematical models or experi- distributed in the three zones of the heat pipe: condenser, adiabatic and
mental investigation, Wang et al. [45] investigated the thermal per- evaporator zone. Table 1 shows the characteristics and dimensions of
formance of flat porous heat pipe during transient state for startup the studied heat pipe. It is instrumented with 12 micro K-type ther-
characterization. They showed that evaporator thermal resistance is mocouples of ± 0.1 °C welded on the upper surface of the heat pipe
very important comparing to condenser thermal resistance. using tin material (k = 66.6 W/m·K) in different points of the heat pipe
In this paper, the thermal performance of the porous wick flat heat with a constant distance of 20 mm (Fig. 3). The thermocouples in the
pipe is experimentally investigated. The experimental apparatus in- condenser zone are set in the contact zone between condenser and the
cluding the fill system and the test section are described. The experi- fins base. Silicone thermal paste is used to ensure a good contact be-
mental procedure used during tests is also extensively detailed. The tween condenser and fins base. Two thermocouples are used to measure
results are presented in four main parts. First, the hysteresis phenom- fins temperature one at the right extreme fin and the second at the left
enon is presented as an important part of the experimental procedure in extreme fin. Another thermocouple was set inside of the evaporator
order to provide similar conditions to cooling applications. Then, var- zone precisely tangent to its extremity to not disrupt the normal func-
ious filling ratios are tested to deduce the optimal filling ratio regarding tioning of the heat pipe as shown in Fig. 3.
different heat input power and represent heat pipe performance while Temperatures are recorded using national instruments data acqui-
varying filling ratios. Temperature distribution, pressure and thermal sition system. Data sampling frequency is one measure per second. A
resistances are also investigated for the optimal filling ratio. user interface is developed to control input data and represent tem-
Afterwards, various working fluids including n-pentane, HFE-700, perature and pressure measurements in specific graphs. This graphic
SES36 and FC3284 are studied and results are analyzed and compared approach enables detecting dry-out in the evaporator zone and dis-
to deduce the performing working fluid. The obtained results are used cerning transient and steady state from temperature curvature evolu-
as cooling solutions to study the application of the heat pipe as a passive tion.
cooling system instead of conventional cooling in a TV Box.
Temperature measurements are carried out and results show that the
2.3. Heat pipe fill ratio
heat pipe represent an effective cooling solution that can replace the
usual cooling system.
Fill system of the heat pipe is an important part of the experimental
apparatus used in order to inject the working fluid volume in the heat
2. Experimental apparatus pipe with high precision and without air infiltration. Fig. 4 presents the
fill system used in this study. It is composed mainly of syringe (1)
The experimental set up used in this work is presented in Fig. 1. The of ± 0.5% precision filled with working fluid which has been connected
test bench is developed to conduct measurements for the heat transfer to the system through two valves (2–3). The first valve is for air eva-
and thermal performance of a heat pipe. It is divided mainly into two cuation from the syringe while the second valve is set to prevent air leak
important parts: heat pipe fill system and heat pipe test section. The to the system from the syringe side. A vacuum pump with vacuum limit
following paragraphs detail the components of each part of the ex- of 4·10−4 mbar is mounted with a valve (4) to ensure vacuum in the
perimental apparatus. system before fill process. The pressure sensor (5) of ± 0.5% error, is
introduced to measure pressure and detect any potential air infiltration.
A second valve (6) is set after to avoid air crossing to the heat pipe in
2.1. Heat pipe test section
case of any leak is detected. A valve (7) connected to transparent tube is
added to ensure the right volume to be injected and that the system is
The test section is used to provide a heat source to the heat pipe
air/gas free. A stainless-steel tubes of 0.8 mm diameter and 20 mm
evaporator within various heat loads. Fig. 2 shows the test section
length are used to link between all the previous components. The heat
where heat transfer performance of the heat pipe is tested. The heat flux
pipe is connected to the filling system with the stainless-steel tube
generated by the electronic components is approached by using a
joined to another valve (8) to control the working fluid injection vo-
heating brass block in direct contact with the heat pipe evaporator. The
lume into the heat pipe. Before fill process, the heat pipe is heated using
brass block has been insulated using Teflon material which prevents
the test section described below to clean the heat pipe from any liquid
important losses in heat flux within ± 3% precision. The upper surface
of the heat pipe evaporator is also insulated with the same material. A
cylindrical cartridge heater of 10 mm diameter, 350 W maximum
power, ± 1% precision and variable power is inserted inside the brass
block. The power supply is adjusted through a voltage autotransformer
having 0–220 V output voltage ± 0.5%. The autotransformer is con-
nected to a wattmeter for power visualization which allows controlling
the exact amount of input heat load that is recorded using Hameg
power meter. A good thermal contact between heat pipe evaporator
bottom surface and upper side of the heating block, is obtained by the
insulating Teflon plate placed above the heat pipe evaporator. The
condensation zone is equipped with rectangular radial disposal fins to
dissipate heat from the condenser to the ambient. The brass block is
instrumented with 14 k-type thermocouples of 1 mm diameter, 150 mm
length. As shown in Fig. 2, thermocouples of the brass block are ar-
ranged in two rows of 7 thermocouples each, the two rows are sepa-
rated with a constant distance of 7 mm.This disposition allows calcu-
lating the temperature gradient then the local dissipated heat flux in the Fig. 1. Experimental apparatus: (1) Syringe; (2) Filling system; (3) Test section;
block. The distance between each thermocouple from the same row is (4) DC power supply; (5) Vacuum pump; (6) wattmeter; (7) User interface; (8)
4 mm. TV Box.

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K. Zeghari, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 163 (2019) 114267

Fig. 2. Heating bloc of the test section: (a) components of the Heating brass bloc: (1) Heat pipe, (2) insulating and maintaining Teflon cover, (3) Internal vapor
thermocouple, (4) heating bloc thermocouples, (5) insulation, (6) welded microthermocouples; (b) Heating bloc assembly, (c) schematics of the heating bloc.

Table 1 residues and then is connected to the fill apparatus where the vacuum is
Flat heat pipe characteristics. set up around 0.102 bar. The pressure stability is checked for 24 h to
Material Copper
ensure any absence of air leak before working fluid injection.

Structure Sintered porous copper 2.4. Data reduction and uncertainties:

dimensions 225 mm × 10.5 mm × 4.5 mm
porosity 35%
Evaporator area 300 mm2
Most temperatures represented in this study are in fact a difference
Evaporator length 30 mm temperature between measured temperature and ambient temperature
Adiabatic length 100 mm as follows T = T Tamb with T is the measured temperature in the
Condenser Length 95 mm heat pipe. The thermal resistances used for characterizing the perfor-
Leff 200 mm
mance of the heat pipe are defined as follows:

– The system thermal resistance Rsys is determined as

Fig. 3. The studied flat heat pipe: (a) Schematic heat pipe size and (b) Heat pipe instrumentation.

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K. Zeghari, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 163 (2019) 114267

Table 2
Uncertainties of the measured parameters.
parameters Uncertainty

Temperature (°C) ± 0.1 °C

Power (W) 1%
Distance (mm) ± 0.5
Fig. 4. Schematic of heat pipe filling system.
Thermal resistance (°C/W) ± 1%
Fill charge 0.5%
Rsys = (Te Tamb)/ Qi (1)

For different heat loads, Rsys is used as an index of heat pipe per-
formance.

– The evaporator and condenser thermal resistances are defined as

R e = (Tct Te )/ Qi (2)

R c = (Tc Tamb)/Qi (3)

The following Fig. 5 shows the electrical diagram of the thermal

resistance in the heat pipe.

– Effective thermal conductivity:

L
K eff =
R sys × A (4)

where L is fixed into 215 mm.. Fig. 6. Transient response of the heat pipe for ascending and descending crenel
In order to evaluate the uncertainty particularly thermal resistance at 50% fill ratio.
uncertainty, the method of Kline and McClintock is used [46]. The
thermal resistance uncertainty is calculated by the following equation:
These two different configurations have an impact on heat pipe
R Q
2
Te
2
Tamb
2 performance particularly stimulating the startup phenomenon. In fact,
= + + the startup characteristic is a very important indicator of the heat pipe
R Q Te Tamb Te Tamb
performance. If the startup is very fast, there is a huge possibility of
With is the uncertainty. Table 2 represents the uncertainty of dif- damaging the heat pipe due to overheating in the evaporator section.
ferentd measured parameters. That’s why a uniform start up is required for this experimental study.
Results of comparison between the two configurations of heat input
3. Results and analysis crenel based on steady state temperatures and start up time are pre-
sented in Fig. 7. ΔT = Te,ds − Te,as represents the difference between
First, the hysteresis phenomenon is investigated for different input vapor temperature in steady state between descending and ascending
heat loads. The working fluid fill ratio impact is studied experimentally crenel for each heat input, while = tas − tds refers to the delay of
within heat flux variation using pentane as a working fluid. The aim is startup between the two crenels for each heat load Fig. 7.
to deduce the optimal fill ratio and characterize the thermal perfor- Results show that temperatures in steady state using increasing
mance of the porous wick flat heat pipe regarding different fill ratios. input heat flux are lower than temperatures in the descending crenel
Then, various working fluids are investigated using the optimal fill but this difference remains small for the studied amounts of heat flux.
ratio. However, startup time for ascending crenel is more important which
means that temperatures take more time to reach steady state. Thus, in
this study the ascending heat input is used during all the experimental
3.1. The hysteresis phenomenon
tests to keep temperatures lower and approach the real start up phe-
nomenon when the electronic component starts heating.
Preliminary tests were conducted to characterize the transient re-
sponse of heat pipe using two configurations: ascending and descending
crenel. The ascending crenel refers to increasing the input heat flux in 3.2. Effect of working fluid fill ratio on the thermal performance of the heat
the evaporator whenever the stationary regime is reached as heat pipe pipe
temperatures are uniformly maintained Fig. 6. Dry out occurs once
temperatures increase sharply which means that heat flux attains a The heat pipe is degassed using a vacuum pump. A selected volume
maximum value. Descending crenel can be defined as setting heat flux of refrigerant is charged into the heat pipe by the fill system. For each
at a maximum value then reducing the value of applied heat load once fixed heat load, heating process is started while temperatures are re-
steady state is attained. corded. Measurements are made in transient state until the steady state.
The heat pipe is charged almost by 100% of the void volume then other
charges are investigated. The liquid fill ratio is defined as
Vi
i = × 100%
V0 (5)
Vi is the fluid volume charged in the heat pipe, V0 the void volume was
fixed in 7.57 ml.
For each fixed fill ratio, different heat flux values are tested in order
to evaluate the effect of heat flux on heat pipe performance. The input
Fig. 5. Electrical diagram of the thermal resistance of the heat pipe. heating power Q i varies from 5 W to 15 W.

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K. Zeghari, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 163 (2019) 114267

Fig. 7. Temperature characterization in the hysteresis phenomenon.

For the investigation of liquid fill ratio i , steady state conditions of

the flat porous heat pipe were considered. Heat pipe temperatures in
stationary regime are presented in Fig. 8(a–c). Temperature distribution
along the length of the heat pipe could reveal more clearly if the heat
pipe is working properly as a phase change cooling device. For instance,
temperature distribution along the heat pipe is displayed for three heat
loads 5 W, 7 W and 12 W respectively.
For these three figures, the horizontal axis represents the position of
the thermocouples along the heat pipe from the condenser section till
the evaporator section and the vertical axis stands for the heat pipe
difference temperatures distribution. A flat temperature distribution is
observed in the evaporator and condenser section of the heat pipe for
25% fill ratio within 5 W, 7 W or 12 W heat load, while for the other fill
ratios temperatures are not uniform which means that the heat pipe is
not functioning properly. In fact, when the filling volume is low, the
evaporator temperatures rise due to the overheated working fluid re-
sulting in inadequate condensate for heat withdrawal, whereas, an
important filling volume could lead to flooding phenomenon char-
acterized by a drastic rise of temperatures due to the stuck vapor in the
evaporator zone and insufficient condensation process that disrupts
heat removal. Therefore, the optimal filling ratio is crucial for a heat
pipe to function as an effective phase change heat spreader. There is a
temperature gradient within the adiabatic section which becomes more
significant at higher heat transfer indicating axial heat conduction
along the wall.
For heat pipe thermal performance characterization, the system
thermal resistance R sys and effective thermal conductivity K eff were
calculated and compared for different working fluid fill ratios. As
shown by Fig. 9, two aspects are observed. One is that R sys decreases to
lower values for 25% fill ratio at different heat loads 4.38 K/W at 7 W
for instance, and increases for other fill ratios, which asserts that 25% is
the optimal fill ratio. The other is that R sys decreases to a minimum
value for 25% at a heat load of 7 W and rises for higher heat loads. This
point represents the maximum heat transfer as it represents the max-
imum limit of the dissipated heat flux. It is deduced from the minimum
fluctuation point of the system thermal resistance profile versus input
power. The maximum heat transfer is reached when the condensate
cannot return to the evaporator with enough quantity because of in-
sufficient capillary pumping. Thus, temperatures increase rapidly
within thermal resistance increase.
The effective thermal conductivity presents inversely the same
profile asR sys Fig. 10. K eff is very important at 25% and reaches higher
values at 7 W regardless. The best achievable K eff is about 981.09 W/
m·K at i = 25% and Qi = 7 W.

3.3. Effect of working fluid filling ratio on the heat pipe start up time

Fig. 8. Fill ratio effect on heat pipe temperature within different input heat
More thermal comparisons were established like transient response
loads: (a) 5 W, (b) 7 W, and (c) 12 W.

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K. Zeghari, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 163 (2019) 114267

Fig. 13. Temperatures and pressure distribution at 25% for different heat loads.

Fig. 9. Heat pipe system thermal resistance versus working fluid fill ratios for
different heat input loads.

Fig. 14. Thermal resistance and effective thermal conductivity at 25% for dif-
ferent heat loads.

Fig. 10. Heat pipe effective thermal conductivity for different fill ratios and Qi.

Fig. 15. Evaporator and condenser thermal resistances at 25% for different Qi.

Fig. 11. Transient response of the heat pipe for different fill ratios.
For instance, temperature’s growth is of 5 °C when input heat flux in-
creases from 7 W to 10 W, whereas, it rises to more than 20 °C for 50%
and 80%. Also, dry out occurs when heat load is set to 12 W for 80%
and 50% as temperature exceeds 80 °C while it remains acceptable for
25% at the same heat flux. Another thermal aspect is the heat pipe start
up represented by vapor transient and steady state difference tem-
perature evolution for some fill ratios at 7 W. It can be noticed in Fig. 12
that at 25% start up time is reduced to 7000 s compared to the others
within lower ΔTvap = 28 °C at steady state which means that start up at
optimal fill ratio is optimized affording better thermal performance to
the heat pipe.

3.4. Heat transfer in the heat pipe within optimal filling ratio

Regarding the comparison results between different fill ratios, it is

Fig. 12. Start-up of the heat pipe for different fill ratios at Qi = 7 W. noticed that 25% is the optimal fill ratio for this study thanks to its
interesting thermal performance. Fig. 13 shows the flat heat pipe
of the heat pipe for three different ratios as it’s shown in Fig. 11. temperatures and pressure versus input heat loads. Te is the evaporator
Transient response of the heat pipe for different fill ratios. Vapor tem- average surface temperature, Tc is the condenser average surface tem-
perature variation is less important for 25% when heat flux increases. perature and Ta is the adiabatic average surface temperature. All

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K. Zeghari, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 163 (2019) 114267

Table 3
Working fluids properties.
Pentane HFE-7000 SES36 FC3284

Thermal conductivity, W/m K 0.11 0.075 0.0816 0.062

Latent heat, kJ/kg 366 142 152.49 105
Liquid density kg/m3 620.78 1400 1365.6 1710
Vapor density, kg/m3 2.05 8.17 4.96 10.3
Specific heat, kJ/kg K 2.31 1.3 1.16 1.1
Liquid viscosity, kg/ms 0.00022 0.00047 0.00051 0.0007182
Surface tension, N/m 0.01548 0.0124 0.012 0.013

Fig. 18. Heat pipe system thermal resistance for different working fluids.

Fig. 19. Start-up of the heat pipe for different working fluids at Qi = 7 W.

decreases with heat load until reaching the maximum heat capacity at
7 W which represents the maximum amount dissipated by the heat pipe
operating optimally. Then, the Rsys increases because of the increase of
the vapor mass and the reduced amount of the returning condensate
due to the insufficient capillary pumping. As Keff is inversely propor-
tional to the thermal resistance the Keff profile presented at Fig. 14
reaches a maximum value at 7 W then decreases which means that the
heat pipe performance start degrading.
Fig. 16. Working fluids selection factors: (a) Liquid transport factor; (b) G- Evaporator and condenser thermal resistances are also represented
Figure of limit. for the optimal fill ratio. Fig. 15 shows that evaporator thermal re-
sistance increases till the maximum heat capacity then decreases while
condenser thermal resistance increases within heat input increase
which confirms what has been studied in previous researches [47]. The
condenser thermal resistance increases due to the insufficient capillary
pumping, while the evaporator thermal resistance drops because of the
rising temperatures in the evaporator zone which reduces the tem-
perature difference between Te and Tct.

3.4.1. Flat heat pipe working fluids performance

Choosing the appropriate fluid relies on different conditions [48].
The studied working fluids in this paper are: FC 3284, SES36, HFE-7000

Fig. 17. Temperature difference distribution along the heat pipe for input heat
load of 7 W.

temperatures are rising within increasing input heat load including

temperature difference between Te and Tc.
Fig. 14 presents the system thermal resistance and the effective
thermal conductivity versus input heat power using the optimal fill
ratio and pentane as a working fluid. The system thermal resistance Fig. 20. GWP metric.

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K. Zeghari, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 163 (2019) 114267

Fig. 21. Instrumentation of TV box: (a) Picture of thermocouples instrumentation in the TV box; (b) Schematic diagram of thermocouples position in the TV box.

and n-pentane. Table 3 shows the thermophysical properties of each

tested working fluid at 25 °C.
Before starting experimental tests, it was necessary to lean on a
preliminary theortitical study using thermal performance factors to
provide succinct experimental tests about the working fluids perfor-
mance. Despite 25% being the optimal ratio for only N-pentane, figure
of limit factors demonstrate that working fluid performance depends
mainly on its thermal properties at a constant volume. Since this work
doesn’t include investigating optimal filling ratios for each refrigerant,
25% was defined as the injected ratio in order to test all the fluids
within the same condition of constant fluid volume.
Working fluid selection factors: for working fluids selection, there
has been various thermal performance evaluating factors related to heat
transfer and fluid flow. These factors provide theoretical criterion based
on which the working fluid selection is made. Before starting experi-
mental tests on the different fluids. A theoretical selection is made re-
garding figure of limits factors. In fact: Due to the impact of axial heat
transfer on the choice of working fluid, for a heat pipe operating while
body forces and vapor pressure drop are negligible, the capillary limit
can be proportional to a working fluid factor called the “liquid transport
factor” or “O-g figure of merit” and is proposed by Marcus et al. [49]:

· l ·k
L tf =
Fig. 22. Conventional cooling system in the TV box while functioning: (a) real µl (6)
picture; (b) Infrared image.
Fig. 16(a) represents the liquid transport factor for different
working fluids at 25 °C. Yet, the presence of even small body forces
(e.g., acceleration fields) makes this comparison invalid. Thus, another
criterion for expected body-forces is used called “g-figure of limit”:

FOM =
l (7)

Thus, to minimize adverse body-force effects, the selected fluid

should have a high value of this parameter. Fig. 16(b) represents the
value of this ratio for the tested fluids.
Working fluid experimental results: In the previous paragraph, a
theoretical study based on thermal properties demonstrated that N-
pentane is the most performing fluid using figure of limit factors at
25 °C. In this paragraph, an experimental comparison of thermal be-
havior between different fluids is presented, discussed and analyzed,
then the obtained results are compared with the previous theoretical
results. N-pentane and SES36 temperature distribution along the heat
pipe at the condenser and the evaporator sections is uniform Fig. 17.
Yet, SES36 evaporator temperature is very high comparing to other
Fig. 23. Temperatures measured in the TV Box without fan during 60 s. working fluids while pentane evaporator temperature is kept low.
Therefore, temperature difference between condenser and evaporator is

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K. Zeghari, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 163 (2019) 114267

Table 4
Components minimum and maximum case temperatures.
N° Component Type Tcase,min Tcase, max

0–5 SK hynix 4 Gb DDR3L SDRAMs RAM memory −40 °C 85 °C

6 Altera EPM240F100 Component −40 °C 85 °C
7 Spansion GL032N90FFIS1 Flash memory −40 °C 85 °C
8 Micron 4UA18 Multimedia card controller −40 °C 85 °C
9–10 Intel Atom CE4200 CPU −45 °C 85 °C

warming potential. The GWP is the index that compares the global
warming impact of an emission of a greenhouse gas with the impact
from the emission of similar amount of CO2 during a time horizon
mostly 100 years [50]. Fig. 20 shows the value of GWP for the tested
refrigerants [51,51]. N-pentane is the only fluid that has no global
warming potential, whereas SES 36 has the largest value among all the
used refrigerants [52].
Another environmental metric commonly used is the ODP which is
originally defined as the relative amount of degradation the fluid can
cause to the ozone layer. The ODP metric for all the tested fluids equals
to 0.
Thus, n-pentane is the most environmentally friendly refrigerant
comparing to the other refrigerants with no global warming and ozone
depletion potential.
Fig. 24. CPU Temperatures reached at 50 s for different cooling configurations.
4. Heat pipe application on cooling a TV box

a. Thermal aspect

After the experimental thermal characterization of the porous wick

flat heat pipe carried out in the previous sections, the application of the
heat pipe is highlighted in this paragraph. The aim of the first part of
the experimental tests is to investigate the thermal performance of the
heat pipe by determining the performant refrigerant and the optimal fill
ratio. These two findings able the heat pipe to work efficiently and to
dissipate important amount of heat from the heating bloc. These
parameters will be utilized for passive cooling application by cooling a
TV box provided by Orange Company using n-pentane at 25% filling
ratio. Thus, the TV box is instrumented with K-type micro thermo-
couples “Ti” within ± 0.1 °C to characterize the temperatures’ dis-
tribution of its electronic components at three different cooling con-
figurations: (i) natural cooling & without fan, (ii) conventional cooling
using fan, and (iii) heat pipe passive cooling without fan. The ther-
mocouples disposal inside the studied TV box is presented in Fig. 21.
Fig. 25. Heat pipe within fins cooling assembly with TV Box. The temperature of each component in the TV Box card is measured
in transient and steady state. Infrared camera system is used to present
a temperature’s cartography of all the components Fig. 22.
the lowest for pentane which represents more efficient thermal per- The following results are presented, compared and analyzed for the
formance. three cooling tested configurations. The natural ambient air cooling is
Rsys uphold the same results for pentane to be the performing used to measure the real operating temperatures without any cooling
working fluid Fig. 18. Rsys for all heat increments for HFE-7000, SES36 device in order to define the maximum range of temperatures that each
and FC3284 are close and represent similar conduct. Otherwise, these component reaches while the TV Box is running normally. Fig. 23 show
experimental results confirm the theoretical comparison based on fluids temperatures distribution without cooling system. For security reasons,
thermal properties in the previous paragraph. the test was interrupted at 60 °C due to high temperatures that would
The heat pipe startup time for different working fluids for input heat damage the electronic device. Table 4 shows the maximum and
load of 7 W (Fig. 19) varies at the same fill ratio and heat flux which minimum case temperatures for all the designed components in Fig. 21.
means that fluid’s type has an important influence on heat pipe start up The conventional active cooling uses fans. This type of cooling is
for constant fill ratio and input heat load. However, ΔTvap in steady commonly used thanks to its capacity to reduce electronic devices
state stabilizes at 30 °C for pentane which remains acceptable for temperatures and keep them at a tolerable range. Yet, this solution
cooling range and more than 35 °C for the others. remains costly due to the important amount of energy consumed, and
Working fluid environmental metrics: The two previous paragraphs becomes disturbing for users because of fan’s noise. Heat pipe passive
show that pentane is the pertinent choice as a working fluid thanks to cooling relies on replacing the conventional cooling system with the
its important liquid transport factor and g-figure of limit besides the studied heat pipe. Since CPU is the most heated component, the eva-
previous experimental results. Yet, there are also environmental metrics porator zone is placed in direct contact on the CPU and the condenser is
(GWP, ODP) used for the selection of refrigerant with low global set into ambiance by curving the heat pipe. Fins are used to increase the

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K. Zeghari, et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 163 (2019) 114267

Appendix A. Supplementary material

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://

doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.114267.

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