Recent developments of lightweight, high performance heat pipes

Heat pipes, known as "super thermal conductors" have been widely used in many areas for more than 50 years. Currently, due to the various requirements put on cooling systems, such as lightweight, better heat transfer performance, and optimised appearance, heat pipes have been improved significantly in the past decades. This paper summarises the recent developments of lightweight, high performance heat pipes. Various methods or approaches to achieve the requirements of lightweight and high performance are introduced. The applications of lightweight materials can help reduce by up to 80% the weight of conventional copper heat pipes; however the lightweight material often has problems of corrosion. Although improving the design of wick structures and changing the size of conventional heat pipe assemblies can help to reduce weight and achieve high heat flux, there are still some limitations to the applications of lightweight materials such as magnesium due to its incompatibility with some working fluids. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.