Performance measurements of a 7 mm-diameter hydrogen heat pipe

A gravity assisted heat pipe with 7-mm diameter has been developed and tested to cool a liquid hydrogen target for extracted beam experiments at COSY. The liquid flowing down from the condenser surface is separated from the vapor flowing up by a thin wall 3 mm diameter plastic tube located concentrically inside the heat pipe. The heat pipe was tested at different inclination angles with respect to the horizontal plane. The heat pipe showed good operating characteristics because of the low radiation heat load from the surroundings, low heat capacity due to the small mass, higher sensitivity to heat loads (to overcome the heat load before the complete vaporization of the liquid in the target cell) due to the higher vapor speed inside the heat pipe which transfers the heat load to the condenser.