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Design and experimental investigation of a neon cryogenic loop heat pipe

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Abstract

Next generation space infrared sensor and detector have pressing requirement for cryogenic heat transport technology in the temperature range of 30–40 K. Cryogenic loop heat pipe (CLHP) has excellent thermal performance and particular characteristics such as high flexibility transport lines and no moving parts, thus it is regarded as an ideal thermal control solution. A neon CLHP referring to infrared point-to-point heat transfer element in future space application has been designed and experimented. And it could realize supercritical startup successfully. Experimental results show that the supercritical startup were realized successfully at cases of 1.5 W secondary evaporator power, but the startup was failed when 0.5 and 1 W heat load applied to secondary evaporator. The maximum heat transport capability of primary evaporator is between 4.5 and 5 W with proper auxiliary heat load. Before startup, even the heat sink temperature decreased to 35 K, the primary evaporator can still maintain at almost 290 K; and the primary evaporator temperature increased at once when the powers were cut off, which indicated the CLHP has a perfect function of thermal switch. The CLHP could adapt to sudden changes of the primary evaporator power, and reach a new steady-state quickly. Besides, some failure phenomena were observed during the test, which indicated that proper secondary evaporator power and heat sink temperature play important roles on the normal operation.

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Abbreviations

T :

Absolute temperature (K)

L :

Length (mm)

P sys :

Pressure of system (MPa)

Q se :

Auxiliary heat load (W)

Q pe :

Primary heat load (W)

T heat sink :

Temperature of heat sink (K)

CC2:

Secondary compensation chamber

LL2:

Secondary loop line

CLHP:

Cryogenic loop heat pipe

EV2-o:

Outlet of the secondary evaporator

Con-o:

Outlet of the primary condenser

EV1:

Primary evaporator

EV1-o:

Outlet of the primary evaporator

EV2:

Secondary evaporator

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Acknowledgements

Financial grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC Grant Nos. 51406009 and 51576010) are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Space Thermal Control Technology, Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering, China Academy of Space Technology, Beijing, 100094, China

    Jiang He, Yuandong Guo, Hongxing Zhang, Jianyin Miao & Lu Wang

  2. Laboratory of Fundamental Science on Ergonomics and Environmental Control, School of Aeronautic Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China

    Yuandong Guo & Guiping Lin

Authors
  1. Jiang He
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  2. Yuandong Guo
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  3. Hongxing Zhang
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  4. Jianyin Miao
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  5. Lu Wang
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  6. Guiping Lin
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Correspondence to Jianyin Miao.

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He, J., Guo, Y., Zhang, H. et al. Design and experimental investigation of a neon cryogenic loop heat pipe. Heat Mass Transfer 53, 3229–3239 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-017-2005-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-017-2005-8

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