Method for fabricating integrated heat pipes via additive manufacturing

A method for fabricating an integrated heat pipe, said method comprising:

• providing a computer-aided design (CAD) model of a thermal management structure with an integrated heat pipe, wherein said integrated heat pipe includes a porous wick structure, a solid conducting structure, and an overlapping region, wherein said overlapping region includes both said porous wick structure and said solid conducting structure;
• representing said porous wick structure in said CAD model as a first simple solid;
• representing said solid conducting structure in said CAD model as a second simple solid;
• representing said overlapping region in said CAD model as a volume which includes both said porous wick structure and said solid conducting structure;
• incorporating said CAD model to a 3D-printer build file;
• assigning a plurality of customizable 3D-printer parameters representing said porous wick structure of said integrated heat pipe to a porous region component model within said 3D-printer build file;
• assigning standard default 3D-printer parameters representing said solid conducting structure and said overlapping region to a solid region component model within said 3D-printer build file;
• and
• printing said integrated heat pipe on a 3D printer using said 3D-printer build file.