High porosity, low tortuosity, variable-pore-size structured topology for capillary wicks

Abstract

A heat pipe includes a a heat pipe wick having a gyroid or other periodic lattice structure, thereby providing relatively high porosity, high surface area, consistent pore size, structural stability, low tortuosity, and low convective acceleration.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A heat pipe comprising:
 a heat pipe wick having a gyroid or other periodic lattice structure, thereby providing relatively high porosity, high surface area, consistent pore size, structural stability, low tortuosity, and low convective acceleration.   
     
     
         2 . The heat pipe of  claim 1 , wherein the heat pipe wick includes a finite-order fractal cross-section, thereby providing relatively high surface area and porosity for a given channel size. 
     
     
         3 . The heat pipe of  claim 1 , wherein the heat pipe wick comprises variable pore sizes. 
     
     
         4 . The heat pipe of  claim 3 , wherein the variable pore sizes are produced via scaling a basic geometry of the heat pipe wick. 
     
     
         5 . The heat pipe of  claim 3 , wherein the variable pore sizes are produced via skewing a basic geometry of the heat pipe wick. 
     
     
         6 . The heat pipe of  claim 3 , wherein the variable pore sizes are produced via implementing a basic geometry of the heat pipe wick on multiple scales in the same bulk structure. The heat pipe of  claim 1 , integrated into a hypersonic leading edge. 
     
     
         8 . The heat pipe of  claim 1 , wherein the heat pipe is a loop heat pipe. 
     
     
         9 . The heat pipe of  claim 1 , wherein the heat pipe is integrated into a vapor chamber heat spreader. 
     
     
         10 . The heat pipe of  claim 1 , wherein the heat pipe wick includes local fractal or high surface roughness to increase capillary force, and wherein the local fractal or high surface roughness is configured to reduce overall pressure drop, thereby greatly improving heat capacity.