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In recent years, the Air Force has been developing rotating heat pipe(RHP) technology for potential use in advanced aircraft systems. The major interest has been to investigate the high speed operating regime(15-60 krpm) of the RHP with targeted application to the more-electric systems such as the integrated power unit and integral starter/generator. Towards this goal, a 2000 W, stainless steel-water, high speed RHP was manufactured and successfully tested up to 30 krpm for the first time. Also, a newly patented RHP design was incorporated in the rotor of an existing permanent magnet alternator presently used in aircraft. Commercial production of this alternator is in progress.

The rotating heat pipe (RHP) technology is revisited in the context of finding a suitable thermal management solution for the advanced electrical machines such as switched reluctance and permanent magnet types. These machines, with potential applications involving direct mounting to gas turbine main shaft, have very high operating speeds and rotor thermal loads requiring new research studies on the use of RHP technology. The RHP literature data of the 1970's and 1980's are mostly limited to low speeds and off-axis mode tests. In this paper, results of a stainless steel - water on-axis RHP are presented. Also, potential application areas are identified.