IMPROVED FLEXIBLE HEAT PIPE COLD PLATE TECHNOLOGY FOR AIRCRAFT CONTROL

The innovation is the incorporation of capillary pumped loop (CPL) heat pipe technology into Thermacore developed Flexible Heat Pipe Cold Plate (FHPCP) hardware. Thermacore has successfully designed, fabricated, and tested four FHPCP geometries for four difference aircraft applications. The results, compiled in a report and submitted to the Naval Air Development Center, demonstrated the FHPCP's versatility and capacity for cooling. The report also indicated that substantial progress had been made towards qualifying the FHPCP for aircraft use; however, additional tests were recommended to complete this work. The suspected weakness (and area of needed testing) of the original FHPCP design was performance under adverse high-g loading and adverse elevation. A CPL design features inherently improved performance under these adverse conditions; consequently, the proposed program would use a CPL design to improved the FHPCP's performance and possibly qualify the advanced design for aircraft use. In addition, the program would pursue additional aircraft cooling applications as well as investigate lighter materials of construction.