Superfluid helium heat pipe

This paper reports on the development and the thermal tests of three superfluid helium heat pipes. Two of them are designed to provide a large transport capacity (4 mW at 1.7 K). They feature a copper braid located inside a 6 mm outer diameter stainless tube fitted with copper ends for mechanical anchoring. The other heat pipe has no copper braid and is designed to get much smaller heat transport capacity (0.5 mW) and to explore lower temperature (0.7 - 1 K). The copper braid and the tube wall is the support of the Rollin superfluid helium film in which the heat is transferred. The low filling pressure makes the technology very simple with the possibility to easily bend the tube. We present the design and discuss the thermal performance of the heat pipes tested in the 0.7 to 2.0 K temperature range. The long heat pipe (1.2 m with copper braid) and the short one (0.25 m with copper braid) have similar thermal performance in the range 0.7 - 2.0 K. At 1.7 K the long heat pipe, 120 g in weight, reaches a heat transfer capacity of 6.2 mW and a thermal conductance of 600 mW/K for 4 mW transferred power. Due to the pressure drop of the vapor flow and Kapitza thermal resistance, the conductance of the third heat pipe dramatically decreases when the temperature decreases. A 3.8 mW/K is obtained at 0.7 K for 0.5 mW transferred power. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.