Design and Experimental Research of a Flat Type CPL with Wicked Condensers

摘要

Capillary Pumped Loop (CPL) is versatile two-phase heat transfer device which has recently gained increasing acceptance in space thermal control and electronic component cooling, but also there are problems that plague the applications of CPL, such as not being robust and reliable. The major components, the evaporator, the condenser and the reservoir play a very important role in CPL operations and performance. From the eye of systems synergy, if the components are not fit each other, CPL system may present unstable. This paper presents a systematic analysis of the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic theory of CPL. This theory, in combining with a computer code, is used to design a flat type CPL. A CPL, which with a flat type evaporator and two flat type wicked condenser, was designed, fabricated and tested to study operation character. In this research, methane was used as working fluid, and the flat type heater was used as heating source, he results indicate that the new type CPL system presents excellent startup performance trait and continuous operation for several hours with both low and high heat load, and also pressure prim are not needed, so the startup time is greatly reduced. With different heat profile tests, the CPL system presents a good heat adaptability. With wicked condenser, the system pressure oscillation was reduced largely, even more eliminated.