Scaling the performance of an air-cooled loop heat pipe with the addition of modular condensers

We report the performance of a novel air-cooled loop heat pipe with a planar condenser and planar evaporator, and the performance improvement expected from a multiple-condenser version of the device. The condensers are developed in a modular design, and the heat pipe is configured to allow the installation of multiple, stacked condensers. An analytical model is developed to predict the scaling of convective thermal resistance with the addition of condensers. The result of the model is compared with the thermal resistance measured from a single-condenser prototype (0.18-0.23°C/W), and the effect of condenser count on thermal resistance is discussed. The heat pipe is intended for the integration into a high-performance air-cooled heat sink.