Heat Pipe Placement in Boyd Genie

Boyd Genie gives the option of adding embedded heat pipes into the base of your heat sink. Genie takes your device layout into account when determining heat pipe placement. This method approximates what Boyd Engineers would do, which is to focus heat spreading at your heat sources.

Boyd Genie’s parent software, Boyd SmartCFD, can implement more complex swept heat pipe geometry which reflects how we can apply heat pipes in the real world. To keep Boyd Genie fast and simple, it can only insert straight heat pipes that extend from one end of the base to the other.

In case you’re looking for more uniform spreading, we can simulate a vapor chamber in Boyd Genie by applying a Uniform Heat Load. This way you can conduct a rough comparison to assess if your application requires heat pipes or vapor chambers.

Otherwise, there are 4 different ways Boyd Genie will place heat pipes in your base depending on the number of devices and number of heat pipes you include in the base.

For single heat sources, heat pipe placement is straightforward. Genie will line up the center of the device and the center of the heat pipe in the direction you selected. You can select that heat pipe axis runs in the same direction as the fins along the flow length of the heat sink or perpendicular to the fins along the width of the heat sink.

For single heat pipes and multiple devices, Boyd Genie will place that one heat pipe in between the two sources. If you have multiple devices that do not line up on the same heat pipe and both require some level of heat spreading, you should consider including multiple heat pipes in your base.

Placements with multiple heat pipes and multiple heat sources are a little more complex, so Boyd Genie makes some assumptions. The Genie evenly distributes the number of heat pipes you’ve included in your design over the widest dimension you have placed heat loads.

For a single heat source, Genie tries to group multiple heat pipes all under the heat source. Boyd Genie limits how close it places each heat pipe, so if there are more pipes than can fit under the device, the heat pipes are grouped together around the center of the heat source. This means that if the Genie can’t place all the heat pipes over the heat source, it places them as group centered over the heat source.

Again, Boyd Genie will evenly spread out multiple heat pipes across multiple heat sources. The farthest width occupied by heat sources is the width that Boyd Genie will spread the heat pipes across. If there is a gap between your devices, that gap is considered part of the width the pipes will be spread across. While this may not always yield a layout an Boyd Engineer would select, it does give you a better idea of how heat pipes can improve base spreading for your heat sink.

If you’re concerned the gap between devices is too large and you’re not getting heat pipes under your base, try increasing the number of heat pipes you include. In fabrication, heat pipes can take U-shaped geometries and act as two heat pipes. Also, the jump in cost between a couple embedded heat pipes and a few more is typically offset by added performance.