Steady state operation of a copper–water LHP with a flat-oval evaporator

In order to dissipate the heat generated by electronic boxes in avionic systems, a copper–water LHP with a flat-oval evaporator was fabricated and tested at steady state. The LHP consists of a flat shaped evaporator, 7 mm thick, including compensation chamber with attached heat exchanger. The condenser is cooled by forced convection of liquid. The variable parameters are the heat sink and ambient temperatures (20 and 55 °C), the orientation (−90° to +90° in two perpendicular planes) and the power input (0–100 W). Evaporator wall temperatures are higher when the evaporator is placed above the condenser. For heat sink and ambient temperature of 20 °C the evaporator wall temperature does not vary much with heat load for all measured elevations. But it fluctuates at heat sink and ambient temperature equal to 55 °C when the evaporator is placed below the condenser. The LHP total thermal resistance is governed by the condenser resistance. It decreases with increasing heat load, whatever the operating conditions, because the part of the condenser internal surface area used for condensation increases too. A minimum thermal resistance of 0.2 K/W was obtained. The maximum thermal resistance was 2.7 K/W.