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This paper describes the transfer of Russian fine pore sintered powder metal wick structure fabrication technology to the United States for use in the construction of U.S. made loop heat pipes (LHPs), capillary pumped loops (CPLs) and heat pipes. Sintered powder metal wick structures have been used in U.S. made heat pipes for over twenty-five years. The typical pore radii for these wick structures range from 10 to 100 microns. Use of a wick material with a pore radius less than 10 microns was limited due to the high pressure drop encountered when used in a standard heat pipe. Conversely, the Russian loop heat pipe is able to get around this high pressure drop constraint due to its unique evaporator design. Prior to the work presented in this paper, the U.S. concentrated on the development of wick structure materials above 10 microns which created a technology void with the advent of the LHP.

This paper describes an effort to demonstrate the benefits of an innovative, lightweight, lubrication free centrifugal compressor that allows the use of environmentally safe alternate refrigerants with improved system efficiencies over current State-of-the-Art technology. This effort couples the recently developed 3-D high efficiency centrifugal compressor and fabrication technologies with magnetic bearing technology and will then prove the performance, life and reliability of the compressor.