EXPERIMENTAL AND ANALYTICAL INVESTIGATION OF A CAPILLARY PUMPED LOOP

An experimental investigation was conducted on a relatively new and un ique type of capillary pumped loop (CPL) at various power inputs and a dverse tilts in order to verify the operational parameters and measure the performance limits. A concurrently developed computer model was c ompared with the experimental data to determine the accuracy of the mo del and verify the predicted trends. The model shows good agreement wi th the experimental data and indicates that the overall transport capa city of this design is significantly greater than what would normally be expected in conventional heat pipes. The steady-state temperature v ariations are presented as a function of input power and adverse tilt, along with the transient response characteristics of the CPL. Also, a comparison is made between data obtained by the authors and that supp lied by the manufacturer.