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 Does heatpipe orientation important?

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SUSAllnGap
post Jul 9 2006, 05:23 PM

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QUOTE(soulfly @ Jul 8 2006, 08:43 PM)
One thing confusing me until now is that the efficiency of heatpipe based coolers.

When heatpipe based coolers first introduced for mainstream usage, the explanation was that the liquid inside the pipes have very low boiling temperature thus it will evaporate under certain temperature level. The evaporated liquid which brings heat moves to the top of the pipe, which then gets cool or condensed and flows back down to the hotter part.

To make it simple, it's the liquid inside the pipes which mainly does the job.

I have a few doubts in mind.

1. Isn't that the way the heatpipe works supposed to be following the gravity law? Hot air goes up, and when it's cold, it goes down (cold air heavier than hot air)? Or do they just move from hot area to cold area like how air supposed to work in the atmosphere? I have seen many heatpipe based cooler which when we put inside the casing, the orientation is not upright, instead, the heatpipe end points toward outside of the casing, away from its base. While in many reviews, usually the person who did the review lay down their system flat instead of putting the heatsink inside the casing.

2. How efficient is the liquid inside the heatpipe? How much thermal energy can they dissipate compare to a normal copper cooler with good fan?
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tower heatsinks "U" and Zalman 9500 "8" are so far the best shape for heatpipe.
as long as they are not disorientated in such away that the base is located on the highest point of the heatsink, then it shouldnt be a problem......

and the " liquid " inside is so little that they'll evaporate if you poke it.
it's just meant to wet the wick structure and not to flood them laugh.gif
SUSAllnGap
post Jul 10 2006, 10:16 AM

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QUOTE(soulfly @ Jul 9 2006, 11:18 PM)
QUOTE(SystemCooling.com)
The vaporized fluid then condenses back to liquid (cold-end) and the heat is dissipated into the air from the metal cooling fins. The working fluid returns to the hot end via capillary action thru an internal wicking structure (sintered metal coating, fine wire mesh, or grooves) so the heat pipe does not have to rely on gravity to recycle the working fluid. The key to a heat pipe's high efficiency is the latent heat of vaporization.

OK... now I understand....

but still.... do heatpipes really able to transfer a lot of thermal energy that fast?
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yeap......the wick structure is really important.......

and who says that it doesnt rely on gravity to work ?

it will only work best under gravity

 

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