Fabric composite heat pipe technology development

Testing has been performed on a variety of fabric composite technology feasibility issues. These include an evaluation of the effective radiation heat transfer rate from a heated metallic surface covered by a ceramic fabric with the intent of determining the ‘‘effective emissivity’’ of the combination of materials, studies of the wicking properties of ceramic fabrics, and the construction of fabric composite heat pipes to test their working properties under both steady state and transient conditions. Results of these experiments shown that fabric composite combinations have greatly enhanced ‘‘effective emissivities’’ resulting from the increases surface area of the fabric, ceramic fabrics can work very well as the wick for heat pipes, ceramic fabric heat pipes have been demonstrated to operate under typical space conditions, and large mass reductions are possible by using fabric composite heat pipes for heat rejection radiator systems.