Mark Warmeling

Research Projects

A Comparison of Loop Heat Pipe and Capillary Pump Loop Heat Pipe Technologies for use in a Geosynchronous Orbit Application

A comparison of LHP and CPL heat transport devices is presented through a summary of available literature, a review of commercial manufacturing capabilities, and an analytical assessment utilizing a specific geosynchronous orbit application. Although at least one reference directly compared LHP and CPL systems, there does not seem to be much information specifically comparing LHP to CPL heat pipe capabilities. The literature review revealed the community at large has leaned towards the development of LHP over CPL systems, giving the LHP system a distinct advantage in development maturity. In the analytical study, a simulated system was designed to meet unique geometric and thermal requirements on a representative satellite model in geosynchronous orbit at five input-power cases. Temperature, flow rate and pressure were calculated in the simulations and directly compared between the two systems. The two systems exhibit very similar system responses in most cases, but for a given geometry CPL systems display increased average temperature and pressure over an equivalent LHP system. In addition, the two systems show more similar responses at lower power and tend to diverge at high input powers. The designed CPL system utilized less control heater power, and maintained more consistent flow rate, temperature and pressure across the time domain analyzed while the LHP system displayed increased response to control heater input and resulted in lower temperature for a given radiator size. Both systems are viable technologies, but the availability of information and available manufacturers give an advantage to LHP systems.