The 21st century has seen the rise of the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) market to revolutionize and provide safe, efficient and accessible on demand air mobility systems for passengers and cargo within the urban areas which has been enabled by conventional take off and landing (CTOL) and vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles. With a global focus on the reduction of CO2 emissions, a transition from traditional combustion engine-based propulsion systems to electric and hybrid propulsion systems is being explored. The development of electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs) has become a center of this revolution to provide a zero-emission based mobility. However, the success of the deployment of eVTOLs as a viable alternative to conventional transportation hinges on several technological barriers, of which efficient thermal management has been identified as the most complex challenge.

Through the development of advanced materials and innovative manufacturing technologies, this research investigates a novel high performance thermal solution leveraging uniform capillary wick structures engineered using a fast turnaround, additive manufacturing based High Voltage Press Sinter Method (PSM) using copper micropowders for creating highly porous and thermally conductive wick structures, with greater control over geometrical complexities and heat pipe designs. This method involves fabrication of three-dimensional uniform wick structures under controlled high voltage pulses, mechanical pressure and exposure times using a retrofitted capacitive discharge resistance setup. The functionality of the resulting sintered wicks is assessed based on porosity measurements, retained mass, surface wettability and surface morphology analysis via confocal imaging.

Surface morphology results reveal consistent particle sintering with maximum particle retention and robust mechanical integrity. Surface wettability and porosity testing results show optimal functional performance for capillary action. DOE-optimized sintering parameters show highly efficient and controllable fabrication technique which can be used to manufacture wick structures based on the thermal management needs.