Loop Heat Pipes for Cooling Systems of Servers

Abstract

Loop heat pipes (LHPs) are exceptionally efficient heat-transfer devices that employ a closed loop evaporation-condensation cycle that can be used to cool densely packed electronic systems that reject large quantities of heat, including computers and their central processing units (CPUs). Tests were carried out on miniature ammonia LHPs with a CPU thermal simulator using different ways of condenser cooling. The possibility of maintaining the cooled object temperatures between 40°C and 70°C with heat load changing from 100 to 320 W was demonstrated. Subsequent tests of these devices in a 1U computer with dual core advanced micro devices Opteron CPUs, dissipating between 95 and 120 W, have confirmed the advantages and heat transfer efficiency of LHP-based cooling systems used to cool CPU in 1U chassis.