Design of an Integrated Loop Heat Pipe Air-Cooled Heat Exchanger for High Performance Electronics

The continually increasing heat generation rates in high performance electronics, radar systems and data centers require development of efficient heat exchangers that can transfer large heat loads. In this paper, we present the design of a new high-performance heat exchanger capable of transferring 1000 W while consuming less than 33 W of input electrical power and having an overall thermal resistance of 0.05 K/W. The low thermal resistance is achieved by using a loop heat pipe with a single evaporator and multiple condenser plates that constitute the array of fins. Impellers between the fins are driven by a custom permanent magnet synchronous motor in a compact volume of 0.1 x 0.1 x 0.1 m to maximize the heat transfer area and reduce the required airflow rate and electrical power. The design of the heat exchanger is developed using analytical and numerical methods to determine the important parameters of each component. The results form the basis for the fabrication and experimental characterization that is currently under development.