Two types of carbon fibers were selected for the sandwich panel faceskin from a trade off study. Using these carbon fibers, the fiber direction was designed appropriately by lamination theory to meet CTE requirements. After designing the faceskin, the CTE of the total honeycomb sandwich panel was evaluated with FEM analysis. Next, the thermal stress in a heat pipe panel was evaluated using an FEM model. The heat pipe/faceskin joint was critical for thermal stress because different types of materials are bonded together. In order to reduce the thermal stress, a low modulus adhesive was evaluated. A nearly full size (1m X 0.8m) CFRP faceskin heat pipe embedded panel demonstrator was built. This panel was evaluated in thermal expansion to verify that the CTE requirement was satisfied. Through these design and fabrication activities, a low CTE CFRP faceskin heat pipe embedded sandwich panel was successfully developed. Heat pipe embedded honeycomb sandwich panels provide extremely high thermal conductivity along the pipe direction, necessary for some structural panels of satellites that need high thermal transport capability. Instead of applying aluminum as the faceskin material, development of low CTE CFRP faceskin heat pipe embedded honeycomb sandwich panel is desirable to reduce total weight of panels.
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