2017-07-062017-07-062017-07-16ICES_2017_12http://hdl.handle.net/2346/72860Bradley Richard, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc., USADevin Pellicone, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc., USAWilliam Anderson, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc., USAICES104: Advances in Thermal Control TechnologyThe 47th International Conference on Environmental Systems was held in South Carolina, USA on 16 July 2017 through 20 July 2017As the capabilities of CubeSats and SmallSats increase so do the heat rejection requirements. While loop heat pipes (LHPs) are capable of transporting heat across deployable radiators they are currently too expensive for most applications. The largest cost comes from the fabrication of the primary wick which requires multiple machining steps as well as a knife-edge seal. In this work the feasibility of fabricating a loop heat pipe (LHP) primary wick using a direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) process was investigated. 3D printing a LHP wick offers several advantages. The overall cost can be significantly reduced by eliminating multiple machining steps and the risk of failure can be reduced by eliminating the knife-edge seal. The challenge with 3D printing of a LHP primary wick is that a very small pore radius is required to supply sufficient capillary pumping power. Most primary wicks have a pore radius of 1-2µm. A pore radius and permeability study was conducted using a range of DMLS methods and parameters to optimize for LHP primary wicks. The results of this study was a minimum pore radius of 6µm which provides a capillary pumping power of 11kPa. Based on this information CubeSats and SmallSats which have smaller heat loads and heat transport distances than traditional satellites can benefit from wicks made using a DMLS process. A 3D printed primary wick was designed and fabricated with a fully dense outer shell for direct welding to the compensation chamber and vapor line. A complete LHP prototype was built and tested to demonstrate the performance of the 3D printed wick. Life testing has begun to demonstrate compatibility of the 3D printed stainless steel wick with ammonia, and the long term structural integrity of the wick.application/pdfengLoop Heat PipeWick FabricationAdditive ManufacturingCubeSatsThermal ManagementPresentations