Investigation of Capillary Limit in a Loop Heat Pipe

This paper presets an experimental study on the capillary limit of a loop heat pipe (LHP) at low powers. The slow thermal response of the loop at low powers made it possible to observe interactions among various components after the capillary limit was exceeded. The capillary limit at low powers was achieved by imposing additional pressure drops on the vapor line through the use of a metering valve. A differential pressure transducer was also used to measure the pressure drop across the evaporator and the compensation chamber (CC). Test results show that when the capillary limit is exceeded, vapor will penetrate the primary wick, resulting in a partial dry-out of the evaporator and a rapid increase of the CC temperature. Because the evaporator can tolerate vapor bubbles, the LHP will continue to function and may reach a new steady state at the higher temperature. Thus, the LHP will exhibit a graceful degradation in performance rather than a complete failure. Moreover, the loop can recover from a partial dry-out by reducing the heat load without a re-start.