Experimental Study of the Effect of the Reservoir on CPL Operation

CPL의 운전에 미치는 레저버의 영향에 대한 실험적 연구

The CPLs(capillary pumped loops) are two phase heat transfer devices which enable active control of operating temperature of heat absorbing elements(or evaporators). Although the CPLs gain increasing interests as promising heat transfer devices for future missions such as spacecraft and commercial applications, their intrinsic complexity in operating principles makes the widespread use of these devices difficult. The key element and main cause of this complexity in operating principles is the two phase hydrodynamic accumulator or reservoir which controls the saturation state of the remaining loop and, particularly for the CPLs, it is separated from the evaporator. Thus, in this study, the operating characteristics of the CPL is investigated experimentally and theoretically. Mainly focusing on the role of reservoir the thermodynamic operating principle is examined first and the experimentally obtained steady state and transient state operating characteristics are discussed in detail.