Transient analysis of a capillary pumped loop heat pipe
A bench-top Capillary Pumped Loop (CPL) test system has been developed and tested to investigate the transient mode operation of this system by applying a step power input to the evaporators. Tests were conducted at several power input and evaporator inlet subcooling combinations. In addition, a lumped-heat-capacity model of the CPL test system has been presented which is used for predicting qualitatively the transient operation characteristics. Good agreement has been obtained between the predicted and the measured temperature variations. A simple evaporator inlet subcooler model has also been developed to study effects of inlet subcooling on the steady-state evaporator wall temperature. Results were compared with the test data collected.