Development of a Steady-State Heat Pipe Code for High Temperature Applications

Research and development of thermal management syst ems for space applications has been carried out at the NASA Glenn Research Center. As a highly efficient heat transfer device, heat pipes may be a major component of these systems. For the purpose of analyzing and optimizing heat pipe designs, a heat pip e code, named as LERCHP, has been developed by the authors. The PC -based LERCHP code can be used to predict the performance of heat pipes in the steady state, including the determination of operating temperature, and operating limits which might be encount ered under specif ied conditions. In the paper, hydrodynamic models in the LERCHP are described. Some results obtained with the LERCHP are presented. Validation of the code performance is under way.