Advanced Loop Heat Pipe Evaporator with Ceramic Nanostructured Composite of Alumina, Alumina-Silica Oxide as a Wick Structure

Nowadays LHP (CPL) is widely used in thermal control systems for space and ground applications. Wick structure is a key element which plays at least two roles: capillary pump to move a working fluid from condenser to the heat loaded zone and thermal and hydraulic breaker between liquid and vapor in LHP (CPL). This paper is devoted to the R&D of LHP with advanced low-cost ceramic wick structure, which has a high capillary pressure head and low thermal conductivity. First set of tests with acetone as a working fluid was done in Porous Media Laboratory, Minsk, Belarus to prove the possibility to use such kind of wick in present and future designs of LHP (CPL).