Functionality, Advancements and Industrial Applications of Heat Pipes

Book excerpt: Functionality, Advancements and Industrial Applications of Heat Pipes introduces heat pipe technologies and highlights a variety of applications for passive thermal control. The book begins with a thorough analysis of heat pipe infrastructure, including principles of operation, temperature limits, reliability and lessons learned from worked examples and case studies. It also presents a concise design guideline for the assembly of heat pipes. The second part moves on to consider a variety of modern day applications for the heat pipe principles discussed, covering nuclear and solar thermal energy engineering facilities as well as applications in space, in the sea and in the air. A final section works through manufacturing elements of different types of heat pipe to ensure they are well maintained and remain fully operational. This section includes the cleaning of parts, the assembly of the heat pipe, an analysis of gas blockages and how to deal with them, as well as performance versification. - Analyzes a wide variety of heat pipes used in various settings, including constant-conductance heat pipes, loop heat pipes and wrap around heat pipes - Considers applications at sea, in the air, on land and in space, including the nuclear and solar energy industries, heat pipes in spacecraft and heat pipe reactors - Includes a heat pipe assembly and design guide, as well as an analysis of lessons learned from different case studies