High performance optical and electronics systems require efficient thermal management for safe and reliable operation. At commercial scale, conduction plates are employed as heat spreaders for removing heat from these systems. However, for high heat flux systems, higher performance heat spreaders must be used for operational reliability. In this manuscript, a two-phase heat spreader called the Pulsating Heat Pipe (PHP) heat spreader was developed as a superior alternative to conduction plates. The PHP was fabricated by additive manufacturing with aluminum. Propylene was investigated as the working PHP fluid with a fluid fill charge ratio of 75% by volume. Performance testing with a centralized heat source with edge heat rejection showed up to three times reduction in thermal resistance in comparison to baseline empty PHP. Peak thermal performance was achieved when the condenser section of the PHP was maintained at 0 °C and -10 °C. The PHP could transfer a heat flux more than 37 W/cm2 without dry-out at these temperatures. Furthermore, a numerical model for performance prediction of the PHP based on semi-empirical heat transfer correlations was developed and validated against experimental data.
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