Advanced Flex. Heat Pipes
Loop Heat Pipes for Avionics |
Loop heat pipes (LHPs) that offer effective heat removal over long distances without sensitivity to gravity. These unique passive two, phase heat transfer systems are bendable, flexible, and routable and have the ability to operate as thermal diodes and prevent backward heat leak. Loop heat pipes can have multiple evaporators to accommodate dispersed heat sources and can include passive/active thermal regulation. Over a period of several years, the Navy, Air Force and NASA helped Thermacore to qualify loop heat pipes for aircraft thermal control applications. This qualification process included thermal performance testing, high-g spin table testing, flex fatigue testing, shock/vibration testing and freeze/thaw testing. As a result of this work, Thermacore loop heat pipes are being implemented into aircraft thermal control applications. The most notable is the use of an LHP on the F-16 to cool electro optics. Under contract to Northrop Grumman, Thermacore has delivered over 100 production LHPs for use on the new Block 60 F-16 aircraft. Other suitable aircraft applications for LHPs include: |
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Above: Laser targeting cooling solution |
Loop Heat Pipes for Aerospace Applications |
As more and more electronics are being packaged into satellites then ever before, providing adequate thermal control through radiation heat rejection with limited surface area becomes more challenging. Heat rejection radiator panels that can be stowed for launch and then deployed from the satellite on orbit are required. Thermacore's loop heat pipe technology makes heat rejection through deployable radiators possible. Thermacore's loop heat pipe technology is capable of transporting and rejecting heat loads from 100's of Watts to greater than 2000 Watts. The most relevant demonstration of Thermacore's deployable loop heat pipe radiator is our delivery of the TSAT Deployable Radiator Engineering Model to LMSSC in March 2007. This loop heat pipe system met, and in some cases, surpassed the technical requirements set forth for the TSAT application. | |
Loop Thermosyphon Technology | |
| Therma-LoopTM is a loop heat pipe which contains no wick structure in the liquid and vapor lines. The wick structure is present only in the evaporator, so Therma-LoopTM has a low mass and is very flexible. In its simplest configuration, the Therma-LoopTM is gravity aided and has no wick structure. This technology is utilized where length from the heat source to the condenser is not feasible for conventional heat pipes. |  |
Above: Laboratory Loop Heat Pipe | |