Operational Characteristics of Loop Heat Pipe in Microgravity and Normal Gravity Environments

ZHONG Siyuan, XIE Rongjian, LI Yunfei, SUN Xiaojin

Journal of Thermal Science ›› 2024, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (4) : 1394-1408.

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Journal of Thermal Science ›› 2024, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (4) : 1394-1408. DOI: 10.1007/s11630-024-1955-7  CSTR: 32141.14.JTS-024-1955-7
Heat and mass transfer

Operational Characteristics of Loop Heat Pipe in Microgravity and Normal Gravity Environments

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Abstract

The loop heat pipe (LHP) is an advanced, efficient two-phase heat transfer unit, whose operational performance may be affected by microgravity conditions in contrast to ground-based applications. The performance of on-orbit temperature data and ground test of a copper-propylene LHP with a condenser temperature range of 243.15 K to 303.15 K were employed to compared and analyzed. The LHP has successfully started up for more than 193 times with a good heat transfer performance and a stable start-up stabilization on-orbit under a complex orbital heating environment for more than eight months. With a small heat load (10.0 W), the average start-up time is 110.0 s while the start-up temperature ranges from 5.71 K–12.78 K. The start-up time at large temperature differences in the high temperature zone will be higher than the time required for start-up at smaller temperature differences in the low one. When the condenser temperature is 250.0 K, the stable temperature difference on orbit is 3.83 K, which is generally consistent in heat transfer compared to 2.20 K in the ground test. In this paper, we can conclude that the on-orbit flight data up to now can provide a reference to the design of subsequent LHP space applications.

Key words

Loop Heat Pipe (LHP) / start up / microgravity / on-orbit experiment

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ZHONG Siyuan , XIE Rongjian , LI Yunfei , SUN Xiaojin. Operational Characteristics of Loop Heat Pipe in Microgravity and Normal Gravity Environments[J]. Journal of Thermal Science, 2024, 33(4): 1394-1408 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-024-1955-7

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