ABSTRACT
High-heat-“ux thermal management systems are in demand for enhancing cooling performances and minimizing degradation for many practical applications such as electronics, nuclear power plants, energy, automotive, and aerospace systems. The phase-change (liquid-vapor, releasing or absorbing heat of evaporation) thermal management systems such as pool boiling and œlm evaporation systems (single pipe, loop heat pipes [LHPs], vapor chambers, etc.) offer high performances and reliabilities, with no external power consumption and minimal temperature difference. These systems generally consist of three components, namely, an evaporator, liquid-vapor conduits, and a condenser, and transport bottlenecks are liquid, vapor, and heat transport in them. The heat is absorbed at the evaporator, and transported through the vapor conduit, and released at the condenser. The condensate returns the evaporator via gravity (pool boiling) and/or capillarity (heat pipes and vapor chambers). Concentrated heat sources make the evaporator to be the most critical bottleneck, since the condenser surface area is generally sufœciently large.
