Optimization of Wettability Gradient for Enhancement of Thermal Performance of Micro Heat Pipes

Abstract

Continuous increase in the integration density of microelectronic units necessitates the use of MHPs with enhanced thermal performance. Recently, the use of wettability gradients have been shown to enhance the heat transfer capacity of MHPs. In this paper, we present an optimization of axial wettability gradient to maximize the heat transfer capacity of the MHP. We use an experimentally validated mathematical model and interior point method to optimize the wettability gradient. For our analysis, we consider two cases wherein (i) the mass of working fluid is constrained, (ii) mass of working fluid is a design variable. Compared to MHP with uniform high wettability and filled with a fixed mass of working fluid, optimization of the wettability gradient leads to 65% enhancement in heat transfer capacity. Similar comparisons for MHP filled with variable mass of working fluid shows more than 90% increase in the maximum heat transfer capacity due to optimization of wettability gradient.