TEST-RESULTS OF WATER AND METHANOL HIGH-SPEED ROTATING HEAT PIPES

The existing rotating heat pipe (RHP) technology was examined and furt her developed for possible cooling applications in high-speed rotating electrical machines required for future designs of more-electric airc raft. Several technical papers covering the results of the design, fab rication, and testing of the RHP hardware in the low-to-intermediate r otational speeds from 500 to 7500 rpm have been published in recent ye ars. In this investigation, performance results are presented for stai nless steel 316-methanol and stainless-steel 316-water high-speed rota ting heat pipes (HSRHPs) that were tested at speeds up to 30,000 rpm f or the first time in the history of RHP research. The HSRHPs were cool ed by air and oil jets in separate tests to compare their relative per formances. Interesting temperature profiles and test results are prese nted for the HSRHPs that were heated by an induction heater and tested in the temperature range of 20-250 degrees C for power inputs from 25 0 to 1300 W.