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Technical Paper

Space Qualification of High Capacity Grooved Heat Pipes

1995-07-01
951551
In the frame of an ESA technology programme, the development of a High Capacity Grooved Heat Pipe (HGP), based on the thermal requirements of the next generation of telecommunication satellites, was contracted to SABCA. After a trade-off and a design study, the selected concept was an aluminium extruded heat pipe (outer diameter of 25 mm) based on a multi re-entrant grooves design. This heat pipe was submitted to an acceptance test campaign: leak, proof, burst tests as well as thermal performance tests (maximum heat transport capacity, maximum tilt capability, start-up, priming, bending influence, ageing / gas plug, non-uniform heat input). The test results showed for the multi re-entrant groove heat pipe a good confidence in the design and the fulfilment of the required specifications on heat transport and on tilt capability (experimental maximum heat transport capability of 1500 Watt-metres for a vapour temperature of 20°C -with ammonia-).
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