Journal of South China University of Technology(Natural Science Edition) ›› 2025, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (9): 149-162.doi: 10.12141/j.issn.1000-565X.240534

• Energy, Power & Electrical Engineering • Previous Articles    

Experimental Study on Thermal Performance of Phase Change Heat Transfer Module with Roll Bond Aluminum Vapor Chambers

GAN Yunhua1 XIE Yuheng1 LIU Fengming2 LIAO Yuepeng1 LI Yong3   

  1. 1. School of Electric Power Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, Guangdong, China;

    2. Guangxi Free Trade Zone Jianju Technology Co., Ltd., Qinzhou 535000, Guangxi, China;

    3. School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, Guangdong, China

  • Online:2025-09-25 Published:2025-04-07

Abstract:

For the thermal design of high power consumption modules in 5G communication base stations, a phase change heat transfer module with roll bond aluminum vapor chamber is proposed, in which the evaporation chamber of the module are interconnected with the flow channels on all vapor chambers of condenser. By setting up an experimental test platform, an experimental investigation was conducted to assess the thermal performance of the phase change heat transfer module across various filling ratios. Additionally, the impacts of the boiling state and the flow distribution of the working fluid on both temperature uniformity and heat dissipation efficiency of the module were thoroughly analyzed. Furthermore, the variation of heat source temperature distribution under different lateral tilt angles is also discussed. The results indicate that when the input power is less than 400W, as the filling ratio increases, the total thermal resistance of the phase change heat transfer module exhibits a trend of initially decreasing and then increasing, reaching its minimum at a filling ratio of 15%, and the lowest total thermal resistance of the module is 0.2116°C/W. Appropriately reducing the filling ratio can induce boiling of the liquid stored at the bottom of vapor chambers, thereby facilitating an even distribution of vapor flow among different vapor chambers, which enhances the heat dissipation efficiency. At input power of 350W and 400W respectively, reducing the filling ratio from 30% to 15% led to a decrease in the standard deviation of temperatures among the vapor chambers by 40.92% and 34.04%, resulting in a significant enhancement in temperature uniformity. When the module is laterally tilted, the movement of the liquid level results in uneven temperature distribution across the heat source. This adverse effect intensifies as the tilt angle increases. At a tilt angle of 10°, the maximum temperature difference across the heat source expands to more than 11.7 times that of the horizontally placed module.

Key words: communication base station, aluminum vapor chamber, working fluid, filling ratio, thermal performance