STRUCTURAL, THERMOPHYSICAL AND MECHANICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF METAL FELT WICKS OF MODERN HEAT PIPES

The article reflects the results of many years’ researches, begun in 1972, of structural, hydrodynamic, thermophysical and mechanical properties of metal felt capillary structures (MFCSs) of heat pipes (HPs). These structures were made from the discrete sintered fibres with length 0.002-0.01 m by a diameter from 20 μm to 70 μm of a copper, stainless steel, or nickel. They were intended for HPs with shells of a copper, stainless steel, nickel, titan, nickel silver, ceramics and heat carriers: nitrogen, ammonia, water, ethanol, methanol, acetone, sodium and others. HPs worked in the range of temperatures from a cryogenic level (- 190 оС) to high temperatures (+ 800 оС). Analytical and experimental researches are executed by authors from the National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” (Kyiv, Ukraine) under the leadership of Dr., Prof. Semena M. On the basis of the conducted researches the functional dependences are obtained for implementation into engineering calculations of heat transfer characteristics of HPs. The proposed methods of the rational HP design with the use of MFCSs and elaborated technology of their fabrication allowed to create and implement into practice a variety of heat pipes and systems on their basis for different fields of application