High Capacity Demonstration of Honeycomb Panel Heat Pipes

High capacity honeycomb panel heat pipes were investigated as heat rejection radiators on future space platforms. Starting with a remnant section of honeycomb panel measuring 3.05-m long by 0.127-m wide that was originally designed and built for high-efficiency radiator fins, features were added to increase thermal transport capacity and thus permit test evaluation as an integral heat transport and rejection radiator. A series of subscale panels were fabricated and reworked to isolate individual enhancement features. Key to the enhancement was the addition of a liquid sideflow that utilizes pressure priming. A prediction model was developed and correlated with measured data, and then used to project performance to large, space-station size radiators. Results show that a honeycomb panel with 5.08-cm sideflow spacing and core modification will meet the design load of a 50 kW space heat rejection system.