Design of a Cavity Heat Pipe Receiver Experiment

A cavity heat pipe experiment has been designed to test the critical issues involved with incorporating thermal energy storage canisters into a heat pipe. The experiment is a replication of the operation of a heat receiver for a Brayton solar dynamic power cycle. The heat receiver is composed of a cylindrical receptor surface and an annular heat pipe with thermal energy storage canisters and gaseous working fluid heat exchanger tubes surrounding it. Hardware for the cavity heat pipe experiment will consist of a sector of the heat pipe, complete with gas tube and thermal energy storage canisters. Thermal cycling tests will be performed on the heat pipe sector to simulate the normal energy charge/discharge cycle of the receiver in a spacecraft application.