Effects of inclination angle and heat power on heat transfer behavior of flat heat pipe with bionic grading microchannels

Bionic structure has become a popular tool to design heat pipes for its ability of heat transfer enhancement and liquid transport. Inspired by the powerful water collection and transfer capability of pitcher plant surface, this paper presents a new flat heat pipe design with bionic grading microchannels (BGFHP) based on special high-low structured surface. Firstly, the performance advantages of BGFHP are revealed by comparing the heat transfer performance and visible internal flow characteristics of BGFHP and conventional FHP. Secondly, the performance variation and influence trend of BGFHP are investigated experimentally with inclination angle and thermal power as variables. Finally, thermal management effects of natural cooling, FHP and BGFHP in fuel cells are compared to demonstrate the practical application of BGFHP. Results show that the high-low channel structure of BGFHP has the advantages of micro-channel hydraulic transport, and the small channel increases the heat transfer area, circulation efficiency and gas phase flow area, resulting in better start-up time and heat transfer capacity than the traditional FHP. The thermal resistance of BGFHP is reduced by 22%, while the thermal conductivity is increased by more than 40%. In the load range of 10–26 W and inclination angle range of 0–90°, the overall thermal resistance and temperature uniformity of BGFHP decreases and then increases as the inclination angle increases. With the increase of heat power, the thermal resistance of BGFHP gradually decreases, whereas the temperature uniformity first decreases and then increases. The optimal working condition of BGFHP is 45° and 24 W, with a minimum thermal resistance of 0.21 K/W. In the fuel cell temperature control test, the BGFHP was able to maintain the temperature below 52 °C, which is 5 °C lower compared to the FHP. This result shows the advantage of the BGFHP in terms of temperature control.