Technical Paper
Characteristics of Reservoir Embedded Loop Heat Pipe in an Orbital Environment in the First Year
2009-07-12
2009-01-2518
A Reservoir Embedded Loop Heat Pipe (RELHP) has a liquid reservoir, located in the evaporator, to ease start-up of the LHP. The RELHP is used for heat transfer from the experimental heat load to a deployable radiator (DPR) on the Engineering Test Satellite-VIII (Kiku-8). This DPR is one of the experimental apparatus on the Kiku-8. The RELHP in the DPR has an evaporator, a condenser, transport lines to circulate a fluid and it utilizes the evaporation and condensation of the working fluid to transfer heat. The DPR on the Engineering Test Satellite-VIII (Kiku-8) was launched into a geo stationary orbit by a H-IIA rocket on Dec. 18, 2006. The DPR radiator was deployed successfully and the first start-up of the RELHP in an orbital environment was conducted smoothly. This paper describes the characteristics of the DPR and the RELHP on Kiku-8 in an orbital environment in the first year.
