Counter gravity heat pipe techniques

Patent · 24 May 2022

OSTI ID:1892959

Reid, Robert S.; Zimmerman, Robert A.; Williams, Cody M.; Biel, Morgan T.; Obrey, Stephen J.; Jankowski, Todd A.; Simpson, Justin; Ward, Martin J.; Wermer, Lydia

A pump assisted heat pipe may combine the low mass flow rate required of latent heat pipe transfer loops with a hermetically sealed pump to overcome the typical heat pipe capillary limit. This may result in a device with substantially higher heat transfer capacity over conventional pumped single-phase loops, heat pipes, loop heat pipes, and capillary pumped loops with very modest power requirements to operate. Further, one or more embodiments overcome the gravitation limitations in the conventional heat pipe configuration, e.g., when the heat addition zone is above the heat rejection zone, the capillary forces are required to transfer the liquid from the heat rejection zone to the heat addition zone against gravity.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• Assignee: Triad National Security, LLC (Los Alamos, NM)
• Patent Number(s): 11,340,023
• Application Number: 15/921,800
• OSTI ID: 1892959
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English