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Sodium/GH4099 Heat Pipes for Space Reactor Cooling

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Abstract

High temperature heat pipes were proposed for space reactor cooling because of their thermal efficiency, inherent safety, and self-actuating operation. Sodium/GH4099 heat pipes were designed and fabricated in China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics (CAAA). And their startup properties and thermal response were investigated systematically. It was found that sodium/GH4099 heat pipes startup successfully at 950 °C heating, displaying an uniform temperature of about 800 °C. On the other hand, charging ratio affected the startup properties significantly. Startup failures occurred for heat pipes with 24% and 30% sodium charging. Under simulated space reactor environment, pre-oxidation of GH4099 surfaces could decrease axial temperature of sodium/GH4099 heat pipes greatly. With pre-oxidation of GH4099, axial temperatures of heat pipes decreased from 1138–1198 °C to 890–951 °C. These temperatures were lower than the end-use temperature of GH4099 alloy. Therefore, it was concluded that pre-oxidized sodium/GH4099 heat pipes were candidate devices for space reactor cooling.

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Abbreviations

D :

Inner diameter of heat pipes, m

g :

Gravity constant, 9.8 N/kg

Kn :

Knudsen number

L :

Length of sodium/GH4099 heat pipes, m

P s :

Saturated pressure of sodium, Pa

r :

Average radius of pores in composite wicks, m

T :

Operating temperature, K or °C

T* :

Startup temperature of heat pipe, K or °C

κ :

Stefan Boltzmann constant, 5.67 × 10−8 W m−2 K−4

ρ :

Density of sodium, kg/m3

σ :

Surface tension of liquid sodium, 0.8 N/m

σ 0 :

Characteristic diameter of sodium atom, 3.567 × 10−10 m

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Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thank Professor Xuejun Zhang for useful discussions about the simulation results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Aero-Thermal Protection Technology for Aerospace Vehicles, China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics, 17# Yungang West Rd., Beijing, 100074, China

    Longfei Hu, Zhi Chen, Ketian Shi, Jiatong Shi, Xiaoguang Luo & Chao Liu

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  1. Longfei Hu
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  2. Zhi Chen
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  3. Ketian Shi
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Correspondence to Longfei Hu.

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Hu, L., Chen, Z., Shi, K. et al. Sodium/GH4099 Heat Pipes for Space Reactor Cooling. Microgravity Sci. Technol. 33, 60 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-021-09906-3

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