Analytical and experimental investigation on the heat transfer limit of grooved heat pipes considering SLM manufacturing deviation

Abstract Additive manufacturing (AM) grooved heat pipes demonstrate excellent thermal performance. This study employed AlSi10Mg material and fabricated rectangular grooved wick samples via selective laser melting (SLM) to investigate how design dimensions affect SLM forming quality. Based on these findings, heat transfer limit predictions were refined to develop a model incorporating SLM manufacturing deviations. Three types of heat pipes with different slot widths were fabricated and tested. Their heat transfer limits deviated from model predictions by 3.8–4.2 W. The predictions of this model showed better agreement with experimental results than the original model. These findings hold significant implications for optimizing microchannel heat pipes in aerospace and electronic cooling applications.