3D Printed Loop Heat Pipe & Radiator Panel
At Advanced Cooling Technologies (ACT), I supported a number of projects, such as the manufacturing of a thermal system on NASA Dragonfly.
One that I am allowed to share online is my design of a fully 3D printed loop heat pipe pump body and accompanying radiator panel.
ACT had already worked on 3D printed loop heat pipe evaporators, which eliminated a few costly orbital welding steps, but the compensation chamber still needed to be welded on.
Although ACT had already figured out how to print the primary wick in the evaporator, it’s difficult to 3D print the compensation chamber because it contains a unique lattice structure called the secondary wick, which allowed fluid to flow as needed from the compensation chamber to the evaporator, or vice versa, during fluctuating power loads.
However, I found that nTopology had basic lattice structures. So, I took a legacy 3D printed evaporator body, modified it, and added a printable compensation chamber in SolidWorks. I had to ensure that there was enough fluid volume in all parts of the system to accommodate all power loads.
After a quick Ansys analysis to ensure if could meet the required internal pressure, I imported it into nTopology to add the secondary wick lattice structure.
Overall, my design eliminated several welds and the typical bimetallic joint that traditional loop heat pipe systems have. Instead of several hundred thousand dollars and up to a year of lead time, I created something where you can just press “print” and get a usable loop heat pipe on the scale of weeks.
In regards to the radiator panel, I ran a couple thermal simulations in SolidWorks to minimize the length of fluid line required to successfully disperse enough heat to keep the system functional. This, paired with my fully 3D printed loop heat pipe design, allows for an effective but incredibly cheap thermal control system.