An experimental investigation of liquid metal thermal joint

This paper presents a highly flexible thermal joint based on room-temperature liquid metal. With the liquid metal joint, a flexible heat conduction device could be fabricated and operate efficiently under bending, torsion or vibration conditions. Conceptual experiments demonstrated that the tolerable bending and torsion angle could be as large as 120 degrees, and the heat transfer capability would not decrease under the vibration frequency of 1-5 Hz. In order to minimize the mechanism, a miniature electromagnetic pump with high efficiency was fabricated and integrated. Both the thermal resistance distribution and pump power were evaluated. The results showed that flexible liquid metal thermal joint owned high heat transfer capability, low power consumption, and could serve as an attractive dynamic heat conduction solution for military and civilian use. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.