Influence of wick properties in a vertical LHP on remove waste heat from electronic equipment

The loop heat pipe is a vapour-liquid phase-change device that transfers heat from evaporator to condenser. One of the most important parts of the LHP is the porous wick structure. The wick structure provides capillary force to circulate the working fluid. To achieve good thermal performance of LHP, capillary wicks with high permeability and porosity and fine pore radius are expected. The aim of this work is to develop porous wick of sintered nickel powder with different grain sizes. These porous wicks were used in LHP and there were performed a series of measurements to remove waste heat from the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT).