There's lots of buzz on the internet aboutheat pipesandvapor chambersbeing amazing additions toair cooled heat sinks. But when it comes to heat pipes versus vapor chambers, what's the difference?
In comparing heat pipes versus vapor chambers, the biggest difference is the direction of heat spreading. Heat pipes have a high effective thermal conductivity focused along the axis whereas vapor chambers have a more two dimensional, planar heat transfer direction.
We can transfer heat away in more directions with a vapor chamber, so two dimensions are better than one, right? Not always. Some vapor chamber construction methods are somewhat susceptible to mounting forces, but recent advances have made vapor chambers more resilient. Most applications require a mechanical load on the heat sink to ensure really good contact to the thermal interface material and device being cooled. Sometimes this load is too much for copper vapor chambers to handle without compressing the vapor space and potentially damaging the wick structure as well. This is where more advanced and structurally stableStainless Steel Ultra Thin Vapor Chambersare effective solutions.
On the other hand, heat pipes generally have less unsupported space than vapor chambers do. This enables heat pipes to handle extreme mechanical stresses better. We can also bend heat pipes for additional control when routing heat. We can translate our high heat transfer rate from one dimension to something a little closer to a full two dimensions by bending heat pipes into more optimized shapes that better suit specific applications.
Genieuses a comprehensive model for simulating a heat pipe. Genie has a fairly simple heat pipe interface and can only handle straight heat pipes embedded in the base. The Genie also will evenly space out your heat pipes near your heat sources. But for getting an idea of how a heat pipe can improve your base heat spreading, it's a great tool. If you're looking for more advanced simulation tools that accurately simulate both heat pipes and vapor chambers, check outSmartCFD.
Boyd Design Engineers are well versed in some of the crazy ways we can use heat pipes. If you have some questions on how else heat pipes can be applied, especially for your specific application, feel free tocontact them.
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