NASA Lewis steady-state heat pipe code users manual

Technical Report · Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1992

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10181275· OSTI ID:10181275

Tower, L K ^[1]; Baker, K W ^[2]; Marks, T S ^[3]

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1. Sverdrup Technology, Inc., Brook Park, OH (United States). Lewis Research Center Group
2. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Cleveland, OH (United States). Lewis Research Center
3. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)

The NASA Lewis heat pipe code has been developed to predict the performance of heat pipes in the steady state. The code can be used as a design tool on a personal computer or, with a suitable calling routine, as a subroutine for a mainframe radiator code. A variety of wick structures, including a user input option, can be used. Heat pipes with multiple evaporators, condensers, and adiabatic sections in series and with wick structures that differ among sections can be modeled. Several working fluids can be chosen, including potassium, sodium, and lithium, for which the monomer-dimer equilibrium is considered. The code incorporates a vapor flow algorithm that treats compressibility and axially varying heat input. This code facilitates the determination of heat pipe operating temperatures and heat pipe limits that may be encountered at the specified heat input and environment temperature. Data are input to the computer through a user-interactive input subroutine. Output, such as liquid and vapor pressures and temperatures, is printed at equally spaced axial positions along the pipe as determined by the user.

• Research Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, OH (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC (United States); USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AI03-86SF16310
• OSTI ID: 10181275
• Report Number(s): NASA-TM-105161; ON: DE94051219; TRN: 94:008313
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: Jun 1992
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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