Thermal Diffusivity Investigation of a Heat Pipe

This paper presents a new method of measuring the thermal diffusivity for a power semiconductor with a heat pipe cooling system. The thermal diffusivity can be used as a key parameter to determine the cooling capacity of a system. A good heat transfer is the base of a reliable power circuit using a heat pipe or a vacuum chamber to obtain maximum thermal efficiency. This method can be extended to any bulk power electronic assembly containing a power semiconductor and his cooling system The principle of this measuring method is to calculate the thermal diffusivity of a power operational system based on the stored energy, the generated heat and the dimensions of the system. Temperature data in real time monitoring, using temperature sensors are used to calculate the stored energy of a periodical thermal wave.