JID:AESCTE AID:3342 /FLA

[m5G; v1.156; Prn:11/06/2015; 12:57] P.1 (1-9)

Aerospace Science and Technology ()

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

67
68

Aerospace Science and Technology

4
5

69
70
71

72

www.elsevier.com/locate/aescte

73

74

75

10

76

11
12
13

Experimental testing of mini heat pipes under microgravity conditions

aboard a suborbital rocket

14
15
16
17

81

Heat Pipe Laboratory, Mechanical Engineering Department, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianpolis, Brazil

83

82
84
85

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t

86

21
23
24
25

87

Article history:
Received 4 July 2014
Received in revised form 13 May 2015
Accepted 4 June 2015
Available online xxxx

26
27
28
29

79
80

19

22

78

K.V. Paiva , M.B.H. Mantelli, L.K. Slongo

18
20

77

Keywords:
Mini heat pipes
Sounding rocket
Microgravity tests

30
31
32
33
34

Heat pipe technologies have numerous applications under microgravity conditions in aerospace, from
miniature devices in laptops used aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to heat transport
systems in satellites. Advances in understanding the behavior of two-phase ow systems under
microgravity conditions could lead to higher-eciency devices and improved heat-exchanger designs.
Under normal gravity conditions, heat pipes can function properly without any kind of capillary structure
(thermosyphons, vertical position) or they can be aided by a wick material in the horizontal position,
allowing the return of the condensate from the condenser to the evaporator. However, gravitational
acceleration can signicantly alter the ow regime, masking some effects that are not observed under
microgravity conditions. This paper presents an experimental analysis of three miniature heat pipe
technologies developed in Brazil for thermal management and heat dissipation of electronic devices
under gravity and microgravity conditions. Different geometries of heat pipes charged with methanol
were tested under microgravity conditions aboard a sounding rocket. Results demonstrated that the mini
heat pipes present low thermal resistances for both gravity and microgravity conditions.
2015 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100

35

101

36

102

37

103

38
39

1. Introduction

40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59

In recent years, the electronic component miniaturization is

mainly observed in the computer industry. Computers are employed in many different applications and environments, from domestic utilities to devices at the International Space Station (ISS).
The compactness and high power dissipation density of these
equipment require ecient cooling methods and small heat pipes
have been used as the main heat dissipation solution devices in
these applications.
Due to their small size, mini heat pipe manufacturing process is
quite different of that employed in conventional heat pipes, mainly
because of the capillary structure fabrication. Two of the most
important parameters that govern the performance of heat pipes
are connected to their porous media: capillarity and permeability. The capillarity reects the pumping force required to promote
the movement of uid from the condenser to the evaporator in a
heat pipe. The permeability is the ability of a material to receive
or hold uid, or allow it to pass through, due to the interconnection of its internal pores. The best performance of a heat pipe
would be achieved by an ideal capillary structure, which presents,

60
61
62
63
64
65
66

Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 48 3721 9937x214; fax: +55 48 3721 9937.
E-mail address: kpaiva@labtucal.ufsc.br (K.V. Paiva).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ast.2015.06.004
1270-9638/ 2015 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

at the same time, high permeability and high capillarity. However,

these two parameters are in conict because, to obtain high capillarity, the porous structure must have small pores; on the other
hand, small interconnected pores cause a large pressure drop and
consequently low permeability. Thus, the development of a porous
structure requires the ecient balancing of these two parameters,
which, when optimized, can increase the performance of a heat
pipe.
The most common used capillary structures are screens, sintered metals and grooves [1]. Sintered metal powder capillary
structures have high pumping capability, low thermal resistance
and, even when partially dried, they still work effectively, but they
present low permeability to liquids (high pressure drop due to
friction). Also, the manufacturing costs are relatively high. Porous
media made by screens provides moderate capillary force but low
permeability and highly effective thermal resistance. Manufacturing costs are low, but there are some restrictions in relation to the
geometry and, in general, cylindrical tubes are used [1,2]. Finally,
grooved structures have high permeability (low pressure drop), but
medium capillary pumping capability.
Hybrid structures can conciliate the best characteristics of two
other simple structures, improving the mini heat pipe performance
[3]. Fig. 1 provides a qualitative comparison between the porous
structures just mentioned.

104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132

JID:AESCTE

AID:3342 /FLA

[m5G; v1.156; Prn:11/06/2015; 12:57] P.2 (1-9)

K.V. Paiva et al. / Aerospace Science and Technology ()

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Fig. 1. Quantitative comparison between the three porous structures.

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66

In order to bring together the pumping and permeability of

porous media, some researchers have proposed bi-modal or hybrid heat pipes. The specialized literature [2,3] reveals that the
use of two or more porous structures in the same heat pipe is
not a new idea concerning conventional (medium to large size)
heat pipes. Inhomogeneous porous media have been developed using different materials and/or composite structures. In some cases,
heat pipes are constructed with two different permeabilities in the
axial direction parallel to the condensate ow, from condenser to
evaporator. However, the use of two capillary structures for small
devices, such as those found in mini heat pipes, is not usual.
Actually, due to reasons already mentioned, the electronics industry has been looking for increasingly thin devices (less than
3 mm) with greater ability to transport heat (above 35 W). According to Mongia [4], hybrid mini heat pipes are devices that
can fulll the requirements of the portable computer industry, as
the liquid transport and the evaporation and condensation processes would be improved by employing two capillary structures.
Therefore, research in this area is needed and should address the
mechanisms of transport in capillary structures, aiming to develop
mini heat pipes with higher performance.
Mwaba et al. [5] performed a theoretical and experimental
analysis of the inuence of three types of capillary structures on
the performance of a heat pipe. One of these structures consisted
of the combination of two different structures, which are sintered
material over screens. In this case, the high capillary pressure provided by the sintered element in the evaporator associated with
the high permeability of the metal screen used in the rest of the
pipe provided greater heat transfer capacity. In addition, the authors also comment that, with a combined or hybrid structure, the
evaporator wall temperatures were lower than those observed using other technologies. This occurred largely due to the increased
surface area of the evaporator, improving the spreading of the liquid in this section and thereby increasing the evaporative process.
Franchi and Huang [6] carried out a comprehensive study on
hybrid structures in order to improve the thermal performance of
mini heat pipes. The capillary structures tested were composed of
layers of copper screens (100 mesh), combined with a thin layer
of nickel powder or copper powder. In their experimental tests, all
combinations performed better than the conventional mini heat
pipe, made of only two layers of copper screens (100 mesh). They
arm that the device that showed the best thermal performance
was one that had variable porosity in the axial direction, since
there was a considerable reduction in the pressure drop from the
condenser to the evaporator.
Savino et al. [7] analyzed the performance of different heat
pipes, with composite wicks or wickless, lled with pure water,
and compared the results with those for the same heat pipes lled
with water/alcohol binary mixtures under normal gravity and low-

gravity conditions. The reduced gravity experiments were carried

out during the 45th ESA parabolic ight campaign aboard the Airbus A-300. The results showed that the heat pipes lled with the
binary mixtures were more ecient when compared to the same
heat pipes lled with pure water.
Since 2002, different types of mini heat pipe technology
have been studied systematically in our laboratory (Labtucal/UFSC
Brazil) under normal gravity conditions and some of them were
tested in two different microgravity environments: aboard sounding rockets and aboard the ISS. Two experiments were conducted
aboard sounding rockets and one aboard the ISS. The microgravity
tests require additional restrictions, making the experiments quite
different from those conventional ones, conducted in laboratory.
In 2002, the rst experiment with only a copper mini heat pipe
charged with water was developed for testing under microgravity
conditions aboard a sounding rocket during Operation Cum I. Unfortunately this launch was not successful, due to a failure in the
system that connected the payload to the propellant (engine) of
the rocket and, as a result, no data were obtained.
In 2006, Paiva et al. [8] conducted an experiment where two
wire-plate mini heat pipes charged with water were successfully
tested aboard the International Space Station (ISS) by the Brazilian
astronaut Marcos Pontes providing a total of four hours of good
microgravity quality data.
In 2007, Paiva et al. [9] performed an experiment under microgravity conditions aboard a two-stage suborbital rocket, during
Operation Cum II. In this experiment four wire mini heat pipes
of the same dimensions (100 30 2.3 mm3 ) charged with acetone, water, ethanol and methanol were tested under microgravity
conditions. The test results were not satisfactory, because some
problems occurred during the ight, affecting the data collection
and the analysis of the results. Therefore, important information
about the device temperature prole inside the rocket platform
could be obtained. Due to the partial failures experienced in this
microgravity experiment, new procedures were adopted to avoid
problems in the subsequent ight experiments.
In the search for cooling solution alternatives, three technologies of mini heat pipes for thermal management and heat dissipation under gravity and microgravity operation conditions, are
described in this paper. Add to this, a two-phase change technology named as phase changing material (PCM) was employed as
heat pipe heat sink. Data used in this analysis are based on those
obtained from a successful microgravity experiment carried out
aboard the experimental platform, launched in Operation Maracati II, by the Brazilian VSB-30 rocket, from the Alcantara Rocket
Launch Center in Brazil, in December 2010. A microgravity testing
time of around six minutes was supplied by the platform.
2. Heat pipe technologies

67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117

2.1. Mini heat pipes

118
119

One of the mini heat pipes tested in this work were fabricated
using the welding diffusion technique. When a plate and a cylinder touch each other, a very sharp edge between them is observed,
which can work as a groove (see Fig. 2). If these surfaces can
be welded without blocking the groove, these edges can work as
ecient liquid transport media for heat pipe applications. The diffusion welding is a welding technique able to provide such grooves
[10].
According to previous studies [9,10], the thermal performance
of wire-plate mini heat pipes is quite known for typical at
straight geometries. However, if this technology is to be applied to
laptops, for instance, other geometries must be considered, which
include curves, slopes, etc. In this case, the effect of bending on

120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132

JID:AESCTE AID:3342 /FLA

[m5G; v1.156; Prn:11/06/2015; 12:57] P.3 (1-9)

K.V. Paiva et al. / Aerospace Science and Technology ()

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

Fig. 2. Wire mini heat pipe.

10

75
76

11

77

12

78

13

79

14

80

15

81

16

82

17

83

18

84

19

85

20

86

21

87

22

88

23

Fig. 3. S-shaped mini heat pipe.

24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44

Fig. 4. Sintered mini heat pipe.

45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66

the thermal performance of the heat pipe must be well known, before its application. To study the inuence of curves on mini heat
pipe performance under gravity and microgravity conditions, the
S-shaped wire mini heat pipe shown in Fig. 3 was manufactured.
In this study, copper diffusion welding, a more sophisticated
welding technique was used in the fabrication of the S-shaped heat
pipes. The tests conducted have, as main objective, to observe the
thermal performance of the S shaped mini heat pipe made of wireplate technology, considering that the condensate has to follow a
tortuous path from condenser to evaporator, comparing the results
obtained in laboratory and in microgravity conditions.
The second technology of porous media tested is known as the
powder sintering wick structure. As can be seen in Fig. 4, the upper and bottom plates of the MHP are covered with a thin layer
of sintered copper powder porous wick. Three solid copper wires
are placed inside the MHP to provide a vapor ow region and the
necessary structural strength. The diffusion welding technique was
employed to seal the device. The operating conditions of these devices are strongly dependent on boiling and condensation thermal
processes, occurring inside the porous medium, and so can be inuenced by microgravity.

The average diameter of the powder used in this study was

characterized. Similarly, the sintered structure was characterized
in terms of its permeability and porosity. The powder diameter
can be observed in Fig. 5a where some samples were deposited on
a conductive plate and images were taken under a scanning electron microscope (SEM), with a magnication of 200 times. Other
samples were manufactured for the analysis of the sintered structure. These were prepared by metallographic techniques with subsequent image acquisition. Firstly, they were embedded in epoxy
resin and then cut and sanded. Fig. 5b shows images of the crosssections used in the characterization process. The dark regions
represent the pores, while the light regions represent the copper
structure. The images have a magnication of 20 times.
The main properties of the sintered structure were measured
experimentally according to studies carried out by Lin et al. [11]
and Innocentini et al. [12] and the results are presented in Table 1.
The third technology tested was a hybrid mini heat pipe [10].
The device tested consisted of two capillary structures inside the
same pipe, in a series conguration. Solid copper wires were
placed in the condenser and adiabatic section while a sintered
porous medium was placed on the evaporator surface as can be
observed in Fig. 6. The objective of this conception is to fulll
the two major functions of a wick in a heat pipe: provide the
capillary force to pump the working uid back to the evaporator and spread the working uid over the entire surface of the
evaporator. This approach was proposed to satisfy two apparently
divergent demands: providing high permeability and high capillary pumping pressure inside the same device (see brief discussion
in the Introduction section). Wick structures that adequately satisfy the two demands may lead to an optimized heat pipe performance. The challenge here is to provide capillary structures
with a combination of pore sizes and sharp grooves that can
optimize both capillary pressure and permeability at the same
time.
All the mini heat pipes produced in this study were tested both
in the laboratory and under microgravity conditions. It should be
noted that another two technologies were also tested under microgravity conditions in the same campaign, a pulsating heat pipe
and a heat spreader. However, the results are beyond the scope of
this study and will be reported in separate article.

89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132

JID:AESCTE

AID:3342 /FLA

[m5G; v1.156; Prn:11/06/2015; 12:57] P.4 (1-9)

K.V. Paiva et al. / Aerospace Science and Technology ()

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

10

76

11

77

12

78

13

79

14

80

Fig. 5. (a) Powder and (b) sintered material.

15

81

16
17
18

82

Table 1
Sintered properties.

83

Table 2
Equipment description.

19

Porosity (%)

Permeability (m2 )

Average pore diameter (m)

20

52.03 0.71

2.70E12

49.04E06

21

Description

Dimensions L W H
(mm)

Mass
(kg)

85

TCM-A

S-shaped MHP
Hybrid MHP
Pulsating heat pipe
Heat spreaderb
MHP sintered powder
Data acquisition system

285 110 210

6.03

87

270 90 250
200 80 160

7.04
2.5

89

140 146 230

5.77

91

22

TCM-Ba
TCM-C

23
24
25

TCM-D

26

27

84

Name

88

Not related to this study.

Heat spreader not related to this study.

28
30
31
32
33
34
35

Fig. 6. Hybrid mini heat pipe.

36
37
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56

2.2. Phase change material

One of the reasons for the failure of the Cum II test failures
was the temperature inside the payload module, which turned out
to be higher than expected, due to the excessive air friction between the rocket and the atmosphere and the heat produced by
other experiments in the same module [10]. Thus, to overcome
this issue and to keep the sink temperature stable, a phase change
material (PCM) device was introduced. It is important to mention
that, as far as the authors know, this was the rst time that the
PCM was used as heat sink proposed aboard sounding rocket.
3. Experimental analysis
The experiment described herein is comprised of four modules
identied as TCM-A, TCM-B, TCM-C and TCM-D as described in Table 2. The experiment hardware dimensions are restricted by the
limited space inside the rocket platform, since the payload rocket
module basically consists of a barrel with two lids, which work as
experiment mounting panels (see Fig. 7).

57
58

3.1. Module TCM-A

59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66

90
92
93
94

29

38

86

In the TCM-A module, two types of mini heat pipes are tested:
curved/S-shaped and hybrid. The pipes are pressed between two
layers of insulating material (polyurethane foam). These layers are
xed to the aluminum heat sink through a bracket (aluminum
plates), as illustrated in Fig. 8.
As usual, mini heat pipes present three different regions: evaporator, adiabatic section and condenser. Heat is added to the evap-

orator by means of a skin heater attached on the evaporator section (see Figs. 9a and 9b). To ensure good contact, thermal grease
was introduced between the heater and the evaporator. The adiabatic section is thermally insulated from the environment by
means of two insulation plates (polyurethane foams) that sandwich the heat pipes. In these modules, aluminum support is built
to x the entire device to the rocket platform. This entire assembly
is xed to an aluminum block (heat sink). Just a small part of the
heat pipes (condenser section) is attached to the heat sink. The
aluminum block works as a heat sink, absorbing the heat generated. Actually, the system operates in transient conditions, but the
aluminum block temperature increase rate is much smaller than
the test temperature variation as the testing time is very short and
therefore, for data treatment purposes, steady state conditions can
be considered. One should note that fans cannot be used due to
the rocket vibrations during the launching.
The temperature distribution along each mini heat pipe is monitored by thermistors (10 k), which are attached to the device via
Kapton and aluminum tapes and connected directly to the data acquisition system. Other thermistors are inserted into the other face
of each sink block to monitor its temperature. Fig. 9 shows the
thermistor locations for the S-shaped and hybrid mini heat pipes.
A DB-25 connector (male) was located on the TCM-A module
side to connect to the data acquisition system. To thermally insulate the experiment from the rocket mounting base, which has
a high temperature due to friction with the atmosphere, a depression was milled in the aluminum block, thereby reducing its
contact area with the rocket platform. Furthermore, a mica insulation plate was used between the experimental modules and the
base of the rocket. Aluminum metal tape was used to protect the
polyurethane foam insulation. Fig. 10 shows the TCM-A module.

95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126

3.2. Module TCM-C

127
128

The TCM-C hardware conguration is similar to the TCM-A

module. The heat was transferred to the mini heat pipe as described in module TCM-A. However, the heat power removal was
performed by an aluminum block with holes which were lled

129
130
131
132

JID:AESCTE AID:3342 /FLA

[m5G; v1.156; Prn:11/06/2015; 12:57] P.5 (1-9)

K.V. Paiva et al. / Aerospace Science and Technology ()

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

10

76

11

77

12

78

13

79

Fig. 7. Payload module and the experiments.

14

80

15

81

16

82

17

83

Table 3
Power input.

18
19
20
21
22

84

Type of pipe

Power input (W)

Hybrid
Sintered
S-shaped wire-plate

12.12
10.00
8.00

23

3.3. Module TCM-D

25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33

Fig. 8. TCM-A module.

35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51

86
87
88
89

24

34

85

with dodecahydrate bibasic sodium phosphate salt, serving as a

heat sink, as observed in Fig. 11. This method was used in this
module instead of the solid aluminum block, to improve the performance of the heat sink, which, due to the geometry restrictions
of the platform, has to be designed with smaller volume. The total
mass of 0.36 kg of salt was used to ll up all the holes machined
in to the aluminum block. An o-ring was employed to prevent
any leakage. This salt was selected taking into account its phase
change temperature (35 C) and its considerable latent heat of fusion 281 kJ/kg [13]. A disadvantage associated with this salt is that
its properties gradually deteriorate and thus, for this experiment,
the same material could be used for only four heating cycles before being replaced. The location of the thermistors on the mini
heat pipe can be seen in Fig. 12.

A data acquisition system was designed especially to monitor

the set-up temperatures during the ight, under microgravity conditions. An aluminum box was used to accommodate the data
acquisition system (see Fig. 13), which was composed of the following components: PC/104 board, data acquisition board, DC/DC
converter, power control board, batteries and memory card.
The PC/104 is basically a computer (equivalent to a Pentium III,
800 MHz). An MS-DOS operating system was used to manage the
les of the memory card. The controlling, reading and acquisitioning programs are executed in C ++ language. The software controls
most of the experiment operation. All of the data are saved on
the memory card and also transmitted by telemetry. Three nickel
metal hydride battery packs, with a total of 36 V and 5 Ah, are
used to provide electricity to the data acquisition system as well
as the heat pipe skin heaters.
Due to the short period under microgravity conditions (approximately 6 min), the battery capacity and the platform power restrictions, only one power step was supplied to each heat pipe, by
means of electrical heaters. Table 3 shows the power applied to
each heat pipe.

90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113

3.4. Test procedure

114
115

Inside the blockhouse at rocket launching site, the experiment

could be controlled by a control box by means of the rocket umbil-

116
117

52

118

53

119

54

120

55

121

56

122

57

123

58

124

59

125

60

126

61

127

62

128

63

129

64

130

65
66

131

Fig. 9. Location of thermistors: (a) S-shaped mini heat pipe and (b) hybrid mini heat pipe.

132

JID:AESCTE

AID:3342 /FLA

[m5G; v1.156; Prn:11/06/2015; 12:57] P.6 (1-9)

K.V. Paiva et al. / Aerospace Science and Technology ()

Table 4
Characteristics of ight in the Maracati II operation.

2
3

Rotation
Lift off acceleration
Reentry acceleration
Flight time
Microgravity time
Apogee
Range

4
5
6
7
8

69

11 to 13 g
8 to 10 g
16 min
6.5 min
252 km
145 km

70

11
12

Fig. 10. Module TCM-A.

14
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33

ical. With this device, one can trigger the experiment by placing it
in standby mode, simulate the signals of lift-off and microgravity
and charge the batteries. Information on the voltage and temperatures of the experimental modules (TCM-A and TCM-C) are received through the umbilical cable as well. Due to the restricted
microgravity time, power was applied to the PCM 20 min before
liftoff, to guarantee that the PCM would reach the salt melting
point of 35 C. Thus, the beginning of the PCM phase change must
occur before the launch. After the rocket is launched, the lift-off
sign is turned on and the data acquisition system starts to save
data onto the ash memory, at the same time that the data is sent
by telemetry. Approximately 1 min after lift-off, the microgravity
condition is reached and an electrical signal powered up the electrical heaters. One should note that, during the lift-off step, the
cables connected to the rocket umbilical tower are removed, commuting the experiment to the automatic mode and using energy
from the batteries. For the laboratory tests, the same procedure
was followed. An illustrative chart is presented in Fig. 14.

34
35

4. Flight characteristics

36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53

71
72
73
74
75

10

15

68

<3.5 rps for 60 s

13

67

VSB-30 sounding rocket is a dual-stage ballistic rocket without active control, produced by the Institute of Aeronautics and
Space (IAE) of the Aerospace Technology Centre (CTA) Brazil. The
microgravity environment is achieved when the rocket is in free
fall before reentering the atmosphere. The payload, where the experiments are located and the entire trigger system, control and
telemetry are designed and developed in partnership with the German group DLR/Moraba. The VSB-30 rocket can carry a payload of
407 kg to an altitude of 260 km. It has a liftoff thrust of 102 MN
and a total mass of 2.657 kg. The rocket has a diameter of 0.58 m
and a length of 12.80 m. Fig. 15 shows the rocket on the launch
pad in a photograph taken seconds after ignition.
As the Alcantara Base is close to the equator, the outside temperature during the day often reaches over 35 C, which could melt
the salt. To avoid this occurring, a special cooling apparatus was
placed in an external part of the rocket platform to control the
room temperature until lift-off, as shown in Fig. 16.

The microgravity conditions obtained by the rocket has more

quality when compared to those obtained in aircrafts and aboard
the International Space Station (ISS). In rockets, there are no vibrations or parasitic accelerations that can affect the quality of the
microgravity obtained. After the suborbital ight, the payload fell
with the help of parachutes into the Atlantic Ocean and it was recovered by the Brazilian Air Force (see Fig. 17).
The ight characteristics obtained during Operation Maracati II
are presented in Table 4.

76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86

5. Experimental results

87
88

As described in Section 3, some of the characteristics of the experiment performed under microgravity differ from those of tests
conducted in the laboratory, mainly because of security requirements. Firstly, the acquisition system used aboard the rocket was
designed according to the needs of the experiment, making it less
precise (1.1 C) than the system in the laboratory (0.6 C). Secondly, the aluminum block used as the condenser has a low capacity to absorb heat, preventing the mini heat pipe from reaching
steady-state conditions. Finally, the environment inside the rocket
can inuence the performance of the devices due to the following
reasons: heating of the module caused by the friction of the rocket
with air and also by interference from other experiments.
The results of three heat pipes are presented in this work (see
Table 5), due to the relevance of these data to the subject under
study.
As illustrated in Figs. 18 and 19 respectively, the hybrid and
S-shaped mini heat pipes, tested under gravity, could not reach full
steady-state conditions, due to the low capacity of the heat sink
(aluminum block), where temperature continue to increase while
receiving heat from the mini heat pipe. Even so, the performances
of these devices are similar to those of the devices tested in the
laboratory, using a thermal bath as the heat sink [10].
The sintered mini heat pipe was located in TCM-C where a PCM
was used to improve the heat sink capacity. As previously mentioned, this material has a melting point of around 35 C. In tests
performed under microgravity conditions, the PCM was heated to
a temperature close to the phase change temperature before the
rocket launching.
In Figs. 20 and 21, the eciency of the PCM as a supplementary
heat sink can be evidenced. On comparing the temperature of the
sintered mini heat pipe under gravity with and without the PCM,

89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119

54

120

55

121

56

122

57

123

58

124

59

125

60

126

61

127

62

128

63

129

64

130

65
66

131

Fig. 11. TCM-C hardware and block lled with salt.

132

JID:AESCTE AID:3342 /FLA

[m5G; v1.156; Prn:11/06/2015; 12:57] P.7 (1-9)

K.V. Paiva et al. / Aerospace Science and Technology ()

1
2
3
4
5
6

67

Table 5
Mini heat pipe characteristics.

68

Type

Dimensions (mm3 )

Evaporator length (mm)

Condenser length (mm)

Charging volume (ml) [uid]

Layer thickness (mm)

Hybrid
Sintered
S-shaped wire-plate

100 30 2.7
100 30 2.7
180 30 2.3

20
20
30

30
30
50

0.5 [methanol]
1.0 [methanol]
1.1 [methanol]

0.5
0.5

69
70
71
72

73

74

75

10

76

11

77

12

78

13

79

14

80

15

81

16

82

17

83

18
19

84

Fig. 12. Location of thermistors on sintered mini heat pipe.

85

20

86

21

87

22

88

Fig. 15. Rocket on the launch pad and lifting off.

23

89

24

90

25

91

26

92

27

93

28

94

29

95

30

96

31

97

32

98

33

99

34

100

35
36

101

Fig. 13. Data acquisition module.

102

37

103

38

104

39

105

Fig. 16. External cooling system.

40

106

41

107

42

108

43

109

44

110

45

111

46

112

47

113

48

114

49

115

50

116

51

117

52

118

53

119

54
55

120

Fig. 14. Experiment/rocket platform interface.

Fig. 17. Payload recovery.

it can be noted that the use of the PCM stabilizes the temperature
distribution, enabling the system to reach steady-state conditions.
All activities and procedures of the TCM experiments before and
after the launch were carried out successfully. Both signals (lift-off
and microgravity) were received by the experiment control system,
TCM-D. The cooling system of the rocket platform maintained the
experiments at a temperature of 25.8 C, according to the temperature sensors of the aluminum blocks. The data were successfully
transmitted by telemetry. The experiments were recovered intact

after the payload had been rescued from the sea. The data stored
on the ash memory card of the acquisition system were intact.
Fig. 22 shows the hybrid mini heat pipe temperature distribution under microgravity as well as the variation in acceleration
levels along three axes, where z is the longitudinal axis of the
rocket. Once the rocket had been launched, the acceleration was
close to 9 G. The acceleration in the y-axis, referring to the rotational movement of the rocket, is used for its stabilization. Once
the acceleration reaches micrometer level, the microgravity signal
was red, activating the electrical heater of the mini heat pipe.

56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66

121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132

JID:AESCTE

AID:3342 /FLA

[m5G; v1.156; Prn:11/06/2015; 12:57] P.8 (1-9)

K.V. Paiva et al. / Aerospace Science and Technology ()

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

10

76

11

77

12

78

13

79

14

80

15

81

16

82

17
18

Fig. 18. Hybrid heat pipe temperature distribution under gravity conditions.

Fig. 21. Sintered mini heat pipe temperature distribution under gravity with PCM as
heat sink.

83
84

19

85

20

86

21

87

22

88

23

89

24

90

25

91

26

92

27

93

28

94

29

95

30

96

31

97

32

98

33

99

34

100

35

101

Fig. 19. S-shaped mini heat pipe temperature distribution under gravity.

36

102

37

Fig. 22. Hybrid mini heat pipe temperature distribution under microgravity conditions.

38

103
104

39

105

40

106

41

107

42

108

43

109

44

110

45

111

46

112

47

113

48

114

49

115

50

116

51

117

52
53
54

118

Fig. 20. Sintered mini heat pipe temperature distribution under gravity without PCM
as heat sink.

55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66

During the reentry, the heat pipe continued working even with
random acceleration values. The heating was cut off 550 s after
lift-off.
As can be seen in Figs. 22, 23 and 24 the microgravity results
indicated a reasonable agreement with the gravity data. For the hybrid and S-shaped mini heat pipes, the temperatures didnt reach
steady state conditions (slightly inclined). This may have occurred
due to the temperature difference at the beginning of the tests and
the rising temperature of the aluminum heat sink. However, when
the temperature difference between the evaporator and condenser

119
120

Fig. 23. S-shaped mini heat pipe temperature distribution under microgravity conditions.

121
122
123

were computed, the values under microgravity and gravity conditions were found to be very similar.
The results obtained in the tests with sintered mini heat pipes
are shown in Fig. 24. In this case, the temperatures under microgravity were closer to the test under gravity. This is due to the
PCM heat capacity, which absorbs the heat from the heat pipes in
an ecient way.
For comparison reasons, the thermal resistance of the three
mini heat pipes under microgravity and gravity conditions were

124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132

JID:AESCTE AID:3342 /FLA

[m5G; v1.156; Prn:11/06/2015; 12:57] P.9 (1-9)

K.V. Paiva et al. / Aerospace Science and Technology ()

found to be appropriate for compact experiments under microgravity conditions, along with the software implementation in C++
language for automatically operating of the experiment and of
the communication protocol, through the telemetry signal of the
rocket. This type of system is not available for sale in the market
and needs to be developed specically for each experiment.
The thermal resistances of the devices were small, showing that
these heat pipe technologies are ecient and can be employed as
electronic thermal control devices for gravity and microgravity applications.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
13
15

Fig. 24. Sintered mini heat pipe temperature distribution under microgravity conditions.

19
21
22

Table 6
Comparison of thermal resistance of mini heat pipes (MHPs) under gravity and microgravity conditions.

23

Type

R ( C/W) gravity

R ( C/W) microgravity

24

Hybrid MHP
S-shaped MHP
Sintered MHP

0.58
2.74
1.40

0.57
3.09
1.36

25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36

calculated. However, as can be seen in the above gures, the device temperature does not fully reach steady-state conditions. Thus,
the average temperature of the evaporator and condenser in the
last fty points before the end of microgravity (450 s) was computed. As can be seen in Table 6, the results obtained under gravity
and microgravity conditions for the hybrid and sintered mini heat
pipes are similar. The S-shaped mini heat pipe provided the greatest difference between the two conditions, but the values became
similar when an uncertainty of 0.20 C was computed.

37
38

6. Conclusions

39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49

70
71
72
73
74
75
76
78
80
81

Acknowledgements

16

20

69

79

None declared.

14

18

68

77

Conict of interest statement

12

17

67

The heat transfer performance of three mini heat pipes charged

with methanol was investigated experimentally under gravity and
microgravity conditions. The data obtained showed the eciency
of the device, resulting in a low thermal resistances. PCM technology was found to be a good alternative as the heat sink for microgravity experiment to be tested aboard sounding rockets, where
the parameters are subject to severe restrictions. The temperature proles indicate that the use of an aluminum block as the
heat sink was not sucient to allow the system to reach steadystate conditions. The data acquisition system and control unit were

82
83

The authors are grateful to CNPq, for providing the scholarship

under grant number 20074518-2, and Brazilian Space Agency
AEB, for providing the microgravity test conditions.

84
85
86
87

References

88
89

[1] L.L. Vasiliev, Micro and miniature heat pipes electronic component coolers,
Appl. Therm. Eng. (2006).
[2] G.P. Peterson, An Introduction to Heat Pipes: Modeling, Testing, and Applications, Wiley, New York, 1994.
[3] A. Faghri, Heat Pipe Science and Technology, rst ed., Taylor & Francis, Washington, DC, 1995.
[4] R.K. Mongia, Heat pipe in future mobile platforms, in: 14th International Heat
Pipe Conference, Florianpolis, Brazil, April 2007.
[5] M.G. Mwaba, X. Huang, J. Gu, Inuence of wick characteristics on heat pipe
performance, Int. J. Energy Res. 30 (2006) 489499.
[6] X. Huang, G. Franchi, Design and fabrication of hybrid bi-modal wick structure
for heat pipe application, J. Porous Mater. 15 (2007) 635642.
[7] R. Savino, Y. Abe, R. Fortezza, Comparative study of heat pipes with different
working uids under normal gravity and microgravity conditions, Acta Astronaut. 63 (2008) 2434.
[8] K.V. Paiva, M.B. Mantelli, R. Gohr, M.A. Correa, Wire mini heat pipe under microgravity conditions, in: 14th International Heat Pipe Conference (14th IHPC),
Florianpolis, SC, Brazil, 2007.
[9] K.V. Paiva, M.B. Mantelli, R. Gohr, L.K. Slongo, V.B. Nicolau, Experimental tests
of wire mini heat pipe under microgravity conditions aboard suborbital rockets, in: 9th International Heat Pipe Symposium, Bandar Sunway, Malaysia, Nov.
2008.
[10] K.V. Paiva, Desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias para minitubos de calor:
anlise terica e experimental, Doctoral thesis, Federal University of Santa
Catarina (UFSC), Florianpolis, Brazil, 2011.
[11] Y.-J. Lin, K.-S. Hwang, Effects of particle size and particle size distribution on
heat dissipation of heat pipes with sintered porous wicks, Metall. Mater. Trans.
A 40 (2009) 20712078.
[12] M.D.M. Innocentini, V.C. Pandolfelli, Permeability of porous ceramics considering the Klinkenberg and inertial effects, J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 84 (2001) 941944.
[13] A. Abhat, Low temperature latent heat thermal energy storage: heat storage
materials, Sol. Energy 30 (1983) 313332.

90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115

50

116

51

117

52

118

53

119

54

120

55

121

56

122

57

123

58

124

59

125

60

126

61

127

62

128

63

129

64

130

65

131

66

132