| Abstract: | A numerical study has been performed to predict the characteristics on the transient operation of the heat pipe with multiple heaters for electronic cooling. The model of the heat pipe was composed of the evaporator section with four heaters, insulated transport section, and the condensor section with a conductor which is cooled with uniform heat flux condition to surrounding. The governing equations and the boundary conditions were solved by the generalized PHOENICS computational code employing the finite volume method. Two test cases are investigated in present study; Case 1 indicates that the 1st and 2nd heaters among four heating sources are heated off, while the 3rd and 4th heaters are heated on. Case 2 is the inverse situation switched from heating location of Case 1. The results show that the transient time to reach the steady state is shorter for Case 1 than for Case 2. Especially, the temperature difference of the heater during switching operation is relatively small compared to the maximum all- owable operating temperature difference in electronic system. Hence, it is predicted that the heat pipe in present study operates with thermally good reliability even for switching the heaters. |
