What if Heat pipes had more liquid inside them ?

[Sun_Bro]

What if Heat pipes had more liquid inside them ?

 

what if they were completely filled ? 

[Levent]

Then it would have needed a pump and at that point it would have been a CLC. Design process of these is extremely complex.

 

[HanZie82]

9 minutes ago, Sun_Bro said:

What if Heat pipes had more liquid inside them ?

 

what if they were completely filled ? 

Then they would NOT be heatpipes anymore.

Just fluid transfer pipes, and those are used for watercooling.

[trag1c]

Heat pipes rely on a phase change to distribute energy away from the source. By changing the phase of the liquid they absorb a ton of energy and are able to move it quickly away from the source after which it condenses and returns to be heated again. If you had more liquid or it was filled it would take a lot more energy to change the phase of liquid since there would be a lot more pressure in the system acting against this tendency to change phases. So like @Leventmentioned without the phase change you would need a mechanism like a pump to distribute the fluid from the areas of high energy to the areas of low energy.

 

By the time you have added the pump you're basically at a full on AC/refrigeration system. They work by having a fluid like propane (anything that can readily change phase with pressure) pumped between area's of high pressure and low pressure to change the state of the working fluid to absorb and transfer heat energy between the condenser and the evaporator. In the evaporator the fluid changes into a gas by moving through tubes that are enlarged causing the fluid to change into a gas which absorbs energy since it boils. Then it moves into the condenser which changes tube size to be smaller forcing the fluid back into a liquid state so that the heat can be removed from it. The whole cycle repeats as its pumped.

[freeagent]

If they had more there is a good chance a pipe would pop, especially with older CPUs.. like 1366 for instance.

[RejZoR]

The point of heatpipes is that fluid vaporizes and condenses at specific rate. Stuffing more of it would just make it boil and blow the heatpipe because of pressure. It wouldn't cool any better.