Kimihide Odagiri

A loop heat pipe is a two-phase fluid loop driven by capillary force. Fabrication of a loop heat pipe evaporator by additive manufacturing has been investigated as a low-cost, quick-delivery method for producing a high-performance loop heat pipe. This study investigated the evaporation and heat transfer performance of a wick-integrated evaporator fabricated by additive manufacturing. It is essential to understand the thermal characteristics of the evaporator for a loop heat pipe with an additive-manufactured evaporator for all applications. A tested loop heat pipe with an additive-manufactured evaporator achieved a maximum heat transport capability of 120 W (heat flux: 7.96 W/cm2) and a minimum thermal resistance of 0.321 °C/W in the horizontal orientation at a 20 °C sink temperature. The evaporative heat transfer coefficient and heat leak ratio to the reservoir were calculated for each orientation test result. The maximum evaporative heat transfer coefficient was 50 kW/m2/K and the heat leak ratio was less than 10 % between 10 W and 70 W in the horizontal orientation. These results reveal that the increase in heat leakage to the reservoir due to the decrease in the evaporative heat transfer coefficient leads to the increase in the loop heat pipe operating temperature and thermal resistance. The novelty of this study is that it clarifies the relationship between a loop heat pipe's thermal resistance and evaporator thermal performance by correlating the evaporative heat transfer coefficient and the heat leakage of the wick-integrated evaporator, which uses additive manufacturing, based on the heat transport test results in each orientation.

A cryogenic capillary pumped loop (CCPL) is a highly efficient two-phase capillary-force-driven heat transport device that operates at cryogenic temperatures. CCPL satisfies the demands for space applications in cryogenic regions as it can transport heat over long distances without mechanical moving parts. In this study, the transient internal flow during the supercritical startup of CCPL was predicted, and various temperature relationships were used to determine whether CCPL starts up or not. The utilized CCPL comprised a wick (pore radius = 1.0 μm), exhibited a heat transport distance of 2 m, and was filled with nitrogen as the working fluid. The supercritical startup experiments were performed at a temperature range of 77–300 K; the startup procedure was initiated when the maximum temperature of CCPL decreased to ∼150 K. Three different liquid supply cycles were tested during the supercritical startup, and the startup time was reduced (a maximum and minimum of 4.1 and 1.9 h, respectively). CCPL started when the evaporator temperature was below the cold reservoir temperature. Thus, the temperature relationship between the cold reservoir and evaporator at the time of applying the heat load to the evaporator could be used to determine the possibility of starting CCPL. The startup was considered successful when the cold reservoir temperature was higher than the evaporator temperature, as the cold reservoir, which exhibited a two-phase state, supplied sufficient liquid to the evaporator, filling the inside of the evaporator with liquid.