Comparative Study Of Heat Pipes With Different Working Fluids Under Normal Gravity And Microgravity Conditions
- Paper number
IAC-07-A2.3.05
- Author
Prof. Raffaele Savino, University of Naples "Federico II", Italy
- Coauthor
Dr. Raimondo Fortezza, MARS s.r.l., Italy
- Coauthor
Dr. Yoshiyuki Abe, Japan
- Year
2007
- Abstract
Previous numerical and experimental studies have demonstrated that Marangoni effects play an important role and therefore affect heat pipes performances. On the basis of surface tensions measurements and fundamental numerical and experimental studies, a number of binary solutions, with a non linear dependence of the surface tension with temperature, have been identified. Preliminary tests have been also performed to show the potential advantages of these candidate solutions when replace common pure liquids in conventional heat pipes. In this paper a comparative study of the heat transfer performances of heat pipes filled with pure water or binary mixtures is presented. The investigated heat pipes have different diameter and wick structure. The experiments have been carried out in laboratory, to assess the heat pipes behaviour under normal gravity conditions and in microgravity during the 45th ESA parabolic flight campaign, onboard the Airbus A-300. The experimental set up was based on a dedicated testing bench, built to perform tests on the heat pipes instrumented with thermocouples and heated by cartridge heaters. The surface temperature distributions have been evaluated along the pipes using also an infrared thermocamera. The thermal resistance has been measured, increasing the heat power, to evaluate the heat transport capacity. The results show that the heat pipes filled with the binary mixtures are more efficient when compared to the same heat pipes filled with pure water. Based on these results, the development of high performances heat pipes for next generation satellites will be carried out through a research development activity program funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). A dedicated experiment to assess the performances of the newly proposed heat pipes is in preparation to be carried out on board an Italian satellite as a microgravity platform.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-07-A2.3.05.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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