Experimental Evaluation of the Operating Limits of Loop Heat Pipe with Cylindrical Evaporator

초록

Loop heat pipe (LHP) exhibits operating limitations depending on the range of input thermal load during operation. In this study, the operating limits of an LHP with a cylindrical evaporator were experimentally measured. The capillary and viscous limits in the medium and low operating range can be observed experimentally and be treated as main indicators of the heat transfer performance of LHP. The capillary structure of the LHP used in the experiment was made of nickel sintered metal, and the wick porosity, pore size, and permeability were 65%, 2.9 mu m, and 5.9 similar to 8.1 gcm/s(2), respectively. The length of the entire LHP loop is 2.5 m, and it has excellent heat transfer performance and can be operated at any unfavorable tilt angle (evaporator is located above condenser). The input thermal load, coolant temperature, and slope were specified as experimental conditions, and the thermal load with operating limits was measured with an error within 10 W.

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