Performance Analysis of a Liquid Metal Heat Pipe Space Shuttle Experiment

Future spacecraft technologies require advanced high-temperature thermal control systems. Liquid metal heat pipes are considered ideally suited for such applications. However, their behavior during microgravity operation is not yet understood. This study investigated liquid metal heat pipe performance in such an environment. Three stainless steel/potassium heat pipes were flown on space shuttle mission STS-77 in May 1996. The objectives of the experiment were characterization of the frozen startup and restart transients, comparison of flight and ground test data to establish a performance baseline for analytical model validation, and assessment of three different heat pipe designs. Heat pipe performance was characterized prior to the flight experiment. Predicted performance envelopes for each heat pipe were determined from theoretical calculations. Performance baselines were established from ground thermal vacuum test results. These pre-flight results were compared with those from the flight experiment. Thermal resistances were calculated for comparison of each heat pipe design.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH is the author of 'Performance Analysis of a Liquid Metal Heat Pipe Space Shuttle Experiment', published 1996 under ISBN 9781423576686 and ISBN 1423576683.