Low Mass Long Distance Effective Heat Transfer via Cryogenic Pulsating Heat Pipes

Cryogenic pulsating heat pipes represent a passive thermal control technology that is commonly used in space systems due to their low mass and desirable heat transfer abilities. A recent experiment with helium pulsating heat pipes was able to demonstrate that extending the heat transfer length by a factor of three resulted in no degradation of the thermal conductance of the system. Thus, it becomes apparent that further experimentation is necessary to characterize the length independence of cryogenic pulsating heat pipes accurately. The objectives of the research outlined in this proposal are to characterize the thermal performance of pulsating heat pipes as a function of their adiabatic length and to determine the limit to which length independence exists as a function of fluid properties for Helium, Hydrogen, and Neon. The successful completion of these objectives relies on extensive experimentation and entails the construction of a variable-length pulsating heat pipe. Moreover, long-distance heat transfer via pulsating heat pipes can be especially useful for cooling large cryogen storage vessels or high-performance electronic sensors. Hence, exploring the limit of this phenomenon will reveal presently unknown characteristics that can guide future researchers in designing pulsating heat pipes for space systems.

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