Loop Heat Pipe with a Vapor Driven Suction

The proposed effort will develop a Loop Heat Pipe (LHP) with a Vapor-Driven Suction Element (VDSE) to stabilize LHP operation during transient conditions and to increase its power capacity. The LHPs have been used on many NASA missions, including PACE (OCI instrument), ICESat-2 (ATLAS instrument), GOES (ABI instrument), FSS (JPL) and GeoXO. A new LHP architecture will be developed for space applications. The main objectives are: Design and produce a VDSE for an existing experimental LHP; Implement the VDSE into the Experimental LHP and process it with ammonia; Perform thermal testing of the Experimental LHP with VDSE enabled and disabled.

The proposed technology is a feature that can be added to an LHP to obtain new capabilities: Mitigate LHP temperature oscillations with large payloads, low heat flux and cold sink; A significant increase in power capacity; Stable operation with uneven heat loads applied to the evaporators of a multiple evaporator LHP.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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