Investigation of the polymer wick structure applied to loop heat pipe

The main purpose of this paper was to develop the manufacturing process and investigate the effects of various parameters of the polymer wicks in a loop heat pipe (LHP). In this study, Polystyrene was chosen as the material of the wick structure, and the salt-leaching method was applied to make the polymer wick structure which had properties of high porosity and low thermal conductivity. The pore radius and porosity of the polymer wick structures were controlled by changing the particle size and content of sodium chloride (NaCl). The polymer wick structures with different pore radius and porosity will be inserted into the LHP's evaporator and be tested for their thermal performance. The results showed that the polymer wick structure with higher porosity and smaller pore radius not only improved the heat transfer capability but also reduced the thermal resistance. Under the allowable evaporator temperature of 85°C, the heat transfer capacity of the polymer wick with the porosity of 80% and pore size of 5.9µm can reach 320W and the thermal resistant was 0.234°C/W.