Pulsating heat pipe with wettability gradient to provide unidirectional flow
AssigneeHamilton Sundstrand Corporation
InventorsViktor Kilchyk, Dmytro M. Voytovych
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An oscillating heat pipe, having: a top region that connects with a heat sink; a bottom region that connects with a heat source; and an intermediate region extending between the top and bottom regions; wherein: the heat pipe is formed of a plurality of pipe segments connected, one after another, to define a closed loop; the plurality of pipe segments include a first segment; and the first segment includes a first portion, wherein the first portion is formed or treated to define a predetermined wettability gradient such that a flow through the first portion is unidirectional.
Claims18
An oscillating heat pipe, comprising:
- a top region that connects with a heat sink;
- a bottom region that connects with a heat source;
- and
- an intermediate region extending between the top and bottom regions;
- wherein:
- the heat pipe is formed of a plurality of pipe segments connected, one after another, to define a closed loop;
- the plurality of pipe segments include a first segment;
- and
- the first segment includes a first portion,
- wherein the first portion is formed or treated to define a predetermined wettability gradient such that a flow through the first portion is unidirectional to push flow from a heat source to a heat sink.
A cooling system, comprising:
- a heat source;
- a heat sink located above the heat source;
- and
- an oscillating heat pipe, the heat pipe defines a top region, a bottom region and an intermediate region;
- and
- wherein the top region is coupled to the heat sink and the bottom region is coupled to the heat source, and
- the heat pipe is formed of a plurality of pipe segments connected, one after another, to define a closed loop;
- and
- wherein:
- the plurality of pipe segments include a first segment;
- and
- the first segment includes a first portion;
- and
- the first portion is formed or treated to define a predetermined wettability gradient such that a flow through the first portion is unidirectional to push flow from a heat source to a heat sink.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.