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Heat pipe transports large quantities of heat from source to sink with only small temperature drop. Thermal energy is transferred to and from heat pipe by any combination of conduction, convection, or radiation heat transfer. Pipes transport energy from open flames, nuclear sources, and electronic equipment.
Tests on heat pipes determine operational limits, external boundary conditions, noncondensable gas effects, startup behavior, and geometric configurations. Experiment consists of design, construction, and testing of an apparatus for measuring wick properties, conventional heat pipes and coplanar heat pipes.
A theoretical study of the use of heat pipe structures for cooling the leading edges of hypersonic cruise aircraft was carried out over a Mach number range of 6 to 12. Preliminary design studies showed that a heat pipe cooling structure with a 33-in. chordwise length could maintain the maximum temperature of a 65 deg sweepback wing with a 0.5-in. leading edge radius below 1600 F during cruise at Mach 8. A few relatively minor changes in the steady-state design of the structure were found necessary to insure satisfactory cooling during the climb to cruise speed and altitude. It was concluded that heat pipe cooling is an attractive, feasible technique for limiting leading edge temperatures of hypersonic cruise aircraft.
Testing was conducted to develop a technique of providing clean holes in process piping or in a metal surface accessible from one side only without disassembling the system. The method was performed on sample pieces of piping and worked successfully with no contaminants being found on the inside of the pipe. The materials tested were Inconel 600, 304 stainless steel, Hastelloy X, and ASTM-A53 black steel. The technique was developed such that it could be done in the field with hand-held power tools and a portable tungsten inert gas welding machine.
A network of lithium-filled tungsten heat pipes is considered as a method of heat extraction from high temperature nuclear reactors. The need for material purity and shape versatility in these applications dictates the use of chemically vapor deposited (CVD) tungsten. Adaptability of CVD tungsten to complex heat pipe designs is shown. Deposition and welding techniques are described. Operation of two lithium-filled CVD tungsten heat pipes above 1800 K is discussed.
An evaluation is presented for the current heat pipe system on the OAO spacecraft, in order to increase its capability for future missions. A detailed analysis was made of the requirements, and approaches for the design of optimized heat pipes to meet future needs were identified. A composite wick heat pipe was developed, which has significantly higher transport capability than those of conventional wick design.
A thermionic system concept is described which incorporates a heat-pipe cooled fast spectrum reactor and six-cell thermionic converter modules located in the space radiator. Much of the technology being developed for the in-core thermionic reactor concept is directly applicable to this out-of-core concept, particularly the fuel and converter development activity. The major technology extension required is in the area of heat-pipes for cooling the reactor and carrying thermal energy from the reactor station to the converters. The performance characteristics of an out-of-core thermionic system at power levels between 40 and 70 kWe are summarized, the adaptation of in-core technology to the out-of-core concept is described and applicable heat-pipe technology programs now underway are discussed.
Description of the concept of splitting a heat-pipe reactor for out-of-core thermionics into two identical halves and using the resulting center gap for reactivity control. Short Li-W reactor heat pipes penetrate the axial reflectors and form a heat exchanger with long heat pipes which wind through the shield to the thermionic diodes. With one reactor half anchored to the shield, the other is attached to a long arm with a pivot behind the shield and swings through a small arc for reactivity control. A safety shim prevents large reactivity inputs, and a fueled control arm drive shaft acts as a power stabilizer. Reactors fueled with U-235C and with U-233C have been studied.-
A suggested technique for accurately measuring thermal conductivity of solids in the temperature range 800-1500 C is presented. The procedure employs the sample to be tested in series combination with a high-temperature heat pipe and a heat-transfer device, which has a variable thermal conductance. By changing the thermal conductance of the heat-transfer unit and measuring the change in heat-pipe power input to maintain a constant heat-pipe temperature, one can accurately measure the heat flux through the sample in conjunction with the temperature drop across it. This steady-state technique has some inherent advantages over methods currently employed to measure thermal conductivity at elevated temperatures.
A network of lithium-filled tungsten heat pipes is being considered as a method of heat extraction from high temperature nuclear reactors. The need for material purity and shape versatility in these applications dictates the use of chemically vapor deposited (CVD) tungsten. Adaptability of CVD tungsten to complex heat pipe designs is shown. Deposition and welding techniques are described. Operation of two lithium-filled CVD tungsten heat pipes above 1800 K is discussed.
An approximate theoretical model is derived for laminar film condensation on the inside of a rotating, truncated cone, and is used to predict the heat transfer performance of rotating, non-capillary heat pipes for a wide variety of parametric conditions. Experimental results are presented for water, ethyl alcohol, and freon-113 in a stainless steel heat pipe rotating to speeds of 2800 rpm. Results show that these devices can be used effectively to transfer large quantities of heat in rotating systems. Predicted results agree to within + or - 20 percent of the experimental data. Dropwise condensation, instead of film condensation, improves heat pipe performance while the presence of non-condensible gases impairs performance.
A passive feedback system, which stabilizes the heat source temperature (T sub s) of a gas loaded heat pipe, was designed and tested. The control of T sub s is accomplished by an auxiliary liquid that senses the heat source and actuates a metal bellows system due to the liquid's thermal expansion. The movement of the bellows varies the gas reservoir volume and leads to a corresponding change of the condensation area of the heat pipe. With methanol as the heat pipe working fluid and perfluoro-n-pentane as the auxiliary liquid, the control capability was found to be T sub s = 31.5 + or - 1.5 C in a power range from 3 to 30 W, compared to T sub s = 33 + or - 3 C with methanol as auxiliary liquid. The change in T sub s was 35 + or - 5.5 C with the bellows held in the closed position.
A collector/heat pipe cooled, externally configured (heated) thermionic diode module was designed for use in a laboratory test to demonstrate the applicability of this concept as the fuel element/converter module of an in-core thermionic electric power source. During the course of the program, this module evolved from a simple experimental mock-up into an advanced unit which was more reactor prototypical. Detailed analysis of all diode components led to their engineering design, fabrication, and assembly, with the exception of the collector/heat pipe. While several designs of high power annular wicked heat pipes were fabricated and tested, each exhibited unexpected performance difficulties. It was concluded that the basic cause of these problems was the formation of crud which interfered with the liquid flow in the annular passage of the evaporator region.
A heat pipe of new design, using an electrode structure to orient and guide the dielectric liquid phase flow, is proposed. Analysis indicates that the operation of the electrohydrodynamic heat pipe is in direct analogy to capillary devices, with the polarization force acting in place of capillarity. Advantages of these new heat pipes include greatly reduced liquid friction, electrohydrodynamically enhanced evaporation and condensation heat transfer, and a possible voltage-controlled on/off feature. Preliminary calculations indicate that relatively high performance devices are possible.
An electrohydrodynamic heat pipe of radical design is proposed which substitutes polarization electrohydrodynamic force effects for capillarity in collecting, guiding, and pumping a condensate liquid phase. The discussed device is restricted to the use of dielectric liquids as working fluids. Because of the relatively poor thermal transport properties of these liquids, capillary heat pipes using these liquids have not been high performance devices. The employment of the electrohydrodynamic concept should enhance this performance and help fill the performance gap that exists in the temperature range from 250 F to 750 F for 'conventional' capillary heat pipes.
Test failures of heat pipes occur when the functional performance is unable to match the expected design limits or when the power applied to the heat pipe (in the form of heat) is distributed unevenly through the system, yielding a large thermal gradient. When a thermal gradient larger than expected is measured, it normally occurs in the evaporator or condenser sections of the pipe. Common causes include evaporator overheating, condenser dropout, noncondensable gas formation, surge and partial recovery of evaporator temperatures, masking of thermal profiles, and simple malfunctions due to leaks and mechanical failures or flaws. Examples of each of these phenomena are described along with corresponding failure analyses and corrective measures.
A study was made of the evolution of hydrogen gas in nickel-water heat pipes for the purpose of investigating methods of accelerated life testing. The data were analyzed in terms of a phenomenological corrosion model of heat pipe degradation which incorporates corrosion and oxidation theory and contains parameters which can be determined by experiment. The gas was evolved with a linear time dependence and an exponential temperature dependence with an activation energy of 1.03 x 10 to the minus 19th joules. A flow-rate dependence of the gas evolution was found in the form of a threshold. The results were used to predict usable lifetimes of heat pipes operated at normal operating conditions from results taken under accelerated operating conditions.
Research and development programs in variable conductance heat pipe technology were conducted. The treatment has been comprehensive, involving theoretical and/or experimental studies in hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, heat transfer into and out of the pipe, fluid selection, and materials compatibility, in addition to the principal subject of variable conductance control techniques. Efforts were not limited to analytical work and laboratory experimentation, but extended to the development, fabrication and test of spacecraft hardware, culminating in the successful flight of the Ames Heat Pipe Experiment on the OAO-C spacecraft.