And as long as there is material to phase change the tempersture will be fixed at the phase change temperature, so boiling water will never go above 100C at 1bar.
Anyway, apparently fluid in heat pipes work at a range of temperatures not just at the exact temperature of phase change
What I always wondered is why we didn't get flexible heat pipes that plug directly into server boards, leading to some centralised heat exchanger or cooling tower, rather using the air as a transfer medium
Because traditional water cooling works better, and air is cheap.
On flexibility I think it’s just that vacuum and the wicking structure that limits the materials. I’m not a material science expert by any means but I have to imagine someone has worked on this.
Because of CoTE was a non issue I would think we could dig heat dissipation channels into the top of chips, maybe Serpinski gasket style. A little proper lapping and you’d get an airtight seal with the heat sink.
Increasing the effective surface area is an interesting idea, though minimizing the seam thickness also works to reduce the thermal resistance of the joint, and seems to be more common.
johnthesecure•9mo ago