Performance of the CAPL 2 Flight Experiment

961432

07/01/1996

Event
International Conference On Environmental Systems
Authors Abstract
Content
This paper describes flight test results of the CAPL 2 Flight Experiment, which is a full scale prototype of a capillary pumped loop (CPL) heat transport system to be used for thermal control of the Earth Observing System (EOS-AM) instruments. One unique feature of CAPL 2 is its capillary starter pump cold plate design, which consists of a single capillary starter pump and two heat pipes. The starter pump enhances start-up success due to its self-priming capability, and provides the necessary capillary pumping force for the entire loop. The heat pipes provide the required isothermalization of the cold plate. Flight tests included those pertinent to specific EOS applications and those intended for verifying generic CPL operating characteristics and performance limits. Experimental results confirmed that the starter pump was indeed self-priming and the loop could be successfully started every time. CAPL 2 met all EOS-AM thermal requirements, and retained many of the performance characteristics of a traditional CPL.
Meta TagsDetails
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/961432
Pages
14
Citation
Ku, J., Ottenstein, L., and Butler, D., "Performance of the CAPL 2 Flight Experiment," SAE Technical Paper 961432, 1996, https://doi.org/10.4271/961432.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Jul 1, 1996
Product Code
961432
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English