Development and examination of switchable heat pipes

The well-directed transmission of heat flux enables an efficient and demand-actuated temperature control of technical systems. By the combination of heat pipes and shape memory alloy actuators, an adaptive, passively working switch concept is developed and implemented, which automatically activates the heat flux through the heat pipe when reaching a certain temperature limit. Furthermore, the created numerical calculation model provides the opportunity to theoretically describe the behavior of the designed system. Measurements show the proof of the concept and validate the model for further optimizations of switchable heat pipes to be applied in various technical applications.