Design and testing of a heat pipe cooled thermionic energy convertor

Author

Veltkamp, W.B. ; Wolff, L.R. ; Schoonen, J.M.W.M. ; Bakker, R. ; Houtermans, M.P.A. ; de Pijper, A.M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Eindhoven Univ. of Technol., Netherlands

fYear

1989

fDate

6-11 Aug 1989

Firstpage

1171

Abstract

Research on thermionic conversion (TEC) at the Eindhoven University of Technology is described. The initial fundamental research on emitter materials has been followed by the design, construction and testing of a flame-heated, air-cooled TEC. Air cooling of the collector with a sodium heat pipe has been preferred as it improves the thermodynamical behavior of the TEC in its prime application area, the electrical generator of a total energy module (TOTEM). Some results of the characterization of the materials used in the convertor, some design considerations for the air-cooled test TEC constructed recently, and test results for a sodium heat pipe collector are discussed

Keywords

heat pipes; testing; thermionic conversion; Eindhoven University of Technology; TOTEM; air-cooled test TEC; heat pipe cooled thermionic energy convertor; thermodynamical behavior; total energy module; Chemical technology; Cogeneration; Converters; Cooling; Electrodes; Energy conversion; Fires; Materials testing; Mechanical engineering; Plasma temperature;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1989. IECEC-89., Proceedings of the 24th Intersociety

Conference_Location

Washington, DC

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IECEC.1989.74617

Filename

74617