Design to Avoid Dry Out in a Flat Heat Pipe Based on Cu Foam

In this paper, we obtained the design parameters, namely the length of the heat pipe and the PPI of the copper foam for a given maximum heat flux required for the flat heat pipe to work. The PPI of the copper foam was obtained for the different values of the maximum heat flux for the various values of the length of the heat pipe. We also determined the optimum PPI of copper foam based on the balance between the capillary pressure and the viscous losses in the flow of liquid in porous media and the vapour section. The behaviour of maximum heat flux with various PPIs for different gravity factors is also discussed. By linear interpolation, we found the behaviour of the maximum heat flux, which will be zero for a given length and a gravity factor for the flat heat pipe.