Energies, Free Full-Text

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The objective of this study was to fabricate anti-gravity heat pipes with a tapering column phase-change chamber and changeable cross-sectional wick structure. The thermal performances of the anti-gravity heat pipes were experimentally investigated. Results show that the thermal resistances of the different heat pipes are less than 0.03 °C/W, except for the sharp conical chamber heat pipe under anti-gravity heating conditions (0.121 °C/W). Start-up times of different types of heat pipes are similar and the temperatures are steady within 3 to 5 min. The heat transfer ability of a conical chamber is always better than that of a cylindrical one. The performance of the sharp conical chamber heat pipe is the best under gravity assistance heating conditions. Contrarily, the blunt conical chamber heat pipe has the best heat transfer ability under anti-gravity heating conditions. Moreover, the heat transfer capability of the blunt conical chamber heat pipe is unaffected by the relative position of the heat and cold sources, which is suitable for constant temperature cooling applications with frequent switching of the heat and cold sources.