Development and test of a cryogenic pulsating heat pipe and a pre-cooling system

Abstract

The needs of thermal links in cryogenic applications are increasing, especially because of the use of cryocoolers which offer a reduced size cold finger. The Pulsating Heat Pipe (PHP) is a passive two-phase high performance thermal link. Like the conventional heat pipe, it features a closed tube filled with a two-phase fluid able to transfer heat from its hot part (evaporator) to the cold part (condenser). A general problem for any two-phase cryogenic thermal link is the pre-cooling of the evaporator to ensure the presence of liquid inside the evaporator to start the flow motion. In conventional heat pipes, this problem is by passed by the wick but in the case of PHPs it has to be specially addressed. We have designed, manufactured and tested a helium PHP associated to a novel pre-cooling system. The cool down time of the PHP evaporator is reduced significantly. The maximum transferred power of the PHP is 145 mW with a cold source at 4.2 K. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.