SBIR-STTR Award

In response to the FY 2022 NASA SBIR Solicitation Topic S06.15 Scope “Advanced Manufacturing of Loop Heat Pipe Evaporator”, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT) and FormAlloy Technologies, Inc. (FormAlloy) propose to develop a hybrid manufacturing process for loop heat pipe (LHP) evaporator. Such a hybrid manufacturing process combines conventional sintering and additive manufacturing (AM) technology. The process can retain the ~1-micrometer pore size of the current primary wick while eliminating the knife-edge seal (KES) that may fail under long exposure to thermal cycles and vibrations. In Phase I, ACT and FormAlloy will continue the process optimization, and perform LHP operation demonstration with evaporators fabricated by the proposed hybrid process. Anticipated

Benefits:
The potential applications for the proposed process are NASA missions and commercial space flights where high-performance and high-reliability LHPs are adopted. Specifically, Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), ICESat-2, Swift, Aura, Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series (GOES-R), Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT), and future Science Mission Directorate (SMD) missions can greatly benefit from the proposed technology. The program is also applicable to all military and commercial satellites that use Loop Heat Pipes. In Other civil or military applications such as LED luminaire, solar water heaters, thermoelectric power generators, etc. can all benefit from LHP with improved reliability

Currently, to ensure the effective heat transfer of Loop Heat Pipes (LHPs), the Knife Edge Seal (KES) in the LHP evaporator is a key component that seals the primary wick and prevents high-pressure vapor from entering the lower-pressure interior of the evaporator and compensation chamber (CC).nbsp; However, the KES may be susceptible to failure after long-time exposure to thermal cycles and vibration.nbsp; Additionally, the KES insertion process is labor intensive and has an intrinsic risk that may increase the lead time and cost.nbsp;To address the challenge, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT), in collaboration with FormAlloy, Inc., utilized Direct Energy Deposition (DED), an Additive Manufacturing (AM) technique, to eliminate the KES, improve the LHP reliability and performance, streamline the LHP manufacturing process, and further enable innovative LHP designs.nbsp;In the Phase I Program, we have successfully demonstrated using DED technology to deposit dense sealing layers on a testing specimen and thus eliminate the KES.nbsp; The DED seal improves the overall LHP reliability and performance while lowering the cost and the lead time. Further, we have successfully demonstrated the operation of a complete LHP with a DED-sealed evaporator.nbsp;The Phase II Program will optimize the DED process and further leverage the DED to the LHP fabrication process. Specifically, we will optimize the DED conditions including laser power, scanning paths, etc.nbsp; In addition, we will conduct reliability and lifetime tests for the DED-sealed parts.nbsp; ACT will also compare the performance of KES-sealed LHP with that of DED-sealed LHP.nbsp; Further, we will develop Functional Gradient Material (FGM) that transits from aluminum alloy to nickel to further streamline the LHP manufacturing process.nbsp; Finally, we will leverage the AM nature of the DED process to enable different CC and the evaporator body shape designs. By the end of Phase II, a complete hybrid manufactured LHP is one major deliverable to NASA.