Operating Characteristics of a Sintered-Metal Wick/Methanol Loop Heat Pipe Having a Bypass Line

소결금속 윅과 메탄올을 사용하며 바이패스라인이 부착된 루프히트파이프의 작동 특성

Operating characteristics of a loop heat pipe (LHP) having a bypass line was investigated experimentally. The LHP had a sintered metal wick as a capillary structure and methanol as a working fluid. The sintered metal wick was made of stainless steel of which the average pore size was 5 ${\mu}m$and porosity of 47%. A bypass line of a small diameter was attached between the vapor escape passage and the liquid reservoir. The dimension of the flat evaporator was $50(L){\times}40(W){\times}30(H)$ mm and that of the condenser was $50(L){\times}40(W){\times}11(H)$ mm. Wall and pipe material of the LHP was stainless steel and heating area was 35(W) mm${\times}$35(L) mm. The inner diameters of vapor and liquid transport lines were 4.0 mm and 2.0 mm, and the lengths of the two lines were both 0.5 m. The LHP was tested for three different tilt angles of horizontal, favorite tilt, and adverse tilt. The thermal load range was up to 290 W at the condenser above evaporation position. Furthermore, the effect of a bypass line on the start-up transient as well as steady-state operation was presented and discussed.