초록 ▼

The heat pipe has a condensing area at one end and an evaporating area at the other end. An ion drag pump is within the condensing area to receive dielectric refrigerant condensate in its inlet. There is a liquid carrying tube having one end connected to the pump outlet and having its other end term

The heat pipe has a condensing area at one end and an evaporating area at the other end. An ion drag pump is within the condensing area to receive dielectric refrigerant condensate in its inlet. There is a liquid carrying tube having one end connected to the pump outlet and having its other end terminating adjacent the evaporating area to discharge refrigerant condensate therein. The evaporating area has heat receiving flow paths into which the condensate is adapted to flow and be vaporized, there being a vapor flow path from the evaporating area through which the vaporized refrigerant returns to the condensing area. The method includes cooling one end of the heat pipe to liquefy refrigerant therein to form a condensate, flowing the condensate into an ion drag pump and applying a sufficiently high voltage across a cathode and anode of the pump to produce ions in the refrigerant condensate, the ions then being accelerated toward the anode so as to create fluid motion and pumping action through the pump inlet. The condensate is thereby pumped through a closed-wall flow path to the other end of the heat pipe to which heat is applied to evaporate the refrigerant into a vapor. The vapor from the other end is then flowed to the one end of the pipe in which the condensate is formed by cooling.

대표청구항 ▼

A method of electrostatically pumping a dielectric refrigerant in a heat pipe, comprising: cooling a condenser chamber at one end of a heat pipe to liquefy the refrigerant at said one end to form a condensate; flowing said condensate into an inlet of an ion drag pump, said pump being in said one end

A method of electrostatically pumping a dielectric refrigerant in a heat pipe, comprising: cooling a condenser chamber at one end of a heat pipe to liquefy the refrigerant at said one end to form a condensate; flowing said condensate into an inlet of an ion drag pump, said pump being in said one end of said pipe in said condenser chamber; applying a sufficiently high voltage difference across a cathode and an anode of the pump to produce a sufficiently high voltage gradient at the cathode to produce ions in the refrigerant condensate that are accelerated toward the anode so as to create fluid motion and pumping action through the pump outlet; pumping said condensate out of said condenser chamber through a condensate flow path in a small diameter closed tube in the pipe and into an evaporator chamber; said tube having one end extending from the pump outlet and having its other end extending to the evaporator chamber; flowing said refrigerant in said evaporator chamber in individual heat receiving flow paths; applying heat to the other end of the pipe to evaporate said refrigerant in said heat receiving flow paths into a vapor in the evaporator chamber; and flowing said vapor in individual vapor flow paths from the heat receiving flow path in said evaporator chamber at said other end to a large flow path to said condenser chamber at said one end of said pipe.