Experimental Investigation of a Cryogenic Methane Heat Pipe Diode

A cryogenic liquid trap heat pipe diode with methane as working fluid has been studied experimentally. The test set-up consists of a vacuum chamber to accomodate the instrumented diode, power sources for the different heaters attached to the diode, a nitrogen-vapor cooling system and a data acquisition unit.

The experimental program included measurements of the maximum forward mode performance vs. operating temperature, measurements of the maximum forward mode performance vs. working fluid fill charge and investigations of the transient shut-down behaviour of the diode.