A study of multiple heat sources on a flat plate heat pipe using a point source approach

An analytical approach has been employed to study liquid flows in an isotropic wick structure of a flat plate heat pipe with multiple heat sources. In this study, the heat sources have been modeled as point sources using the Dirac Delta function to describe the heat distribution. The two-dimensional pressure and velocity distributions are shown and discussed. The study has been extended to locate the positions of the multiple heat sources for optimum heat pipe performance. The optimum performance of the heat pipe is accomplished when the minimum pressure drop is attained across the wick structure.