Spot Cooling Mini-Loop Heat Pipes

TA&T, in collaboration with Swales Aerospace, proposes to develop a novel modular, spot-cooling (two-phase) miniature loop heat pipe (mini-LHP) thermal transport system consisting of distributed flat-plate ceramic evaporator modules tied to a centralcondenser system. The use of a two-phase mini-LHP thermal transport system represents a zero-noise/zero power thermal solution for cooling COTS electronic components/computers in a high temperature environment. The modular approach will allow flexibleexpansion or contraction of the system capacity without significant system redesign. This approach will allow retrofitting of existing electronics with the compact ceramic evaporators with only minor modification to the component housing. For newelectronic components, the approach will allow integration of the evaporator modules during printed circuit board assembly for the optimum packaging efficiency. The Phase I effort will assess the electronic systems in need of cooling and design a loopheat pipe system based on the thermal requirements of those components. The feasibility of fabricating the novel ceramic evaporators will also be demonstrated and testing will be performed to verify performance. This work will serve as the basis forPhase II in which a complete prototype system will be fabricated and tested. The proposed approach will have high applicability to a variety of DOD, NASA and consumer electronics where compact, reliable, zero-power cooling is required. Primaryconsumer applications will be in laptop as well as desktop computers.