The Study of Fluid Motion in an Oscillating Heat Pipe with Neutron Images
As electronic devices become more complicated, more excessive heat is generated from the devices. However, if the excessive heat released from an electronic device is not removed effectively, the performance of the electronic device will degrade with time. An OHP (oscillating heat pipe) is a cooling system composed of copper tubes which are partially filled with a liquid. The main purpose of an OHP is to keep the fluid inside its copper tubes oscillating allowing the removal of heat from an electronic device. The OHP has shown better performance than a conventional heat pipe which makes it a promising thermal management device. However, the fluid motion in the OHP is not fully understood. An OHP was fabricated and neutron imaging was used to visualize the motion of the fluid inside an OHP. The temperature data and imaging were collected simultaneously. In this study, the fluid motion of the OHP will be analyzed. This will be done by using the images that are provided from the neutron imaging. It is expected that the results will provide insight on how the oscillating heat pipe can be designed for more effective cooling of electronic devices. New design concepts for better thermal performance of OHP will be suggested.