Due to their safety, efficiency, and passive operation, heat pipes have found diverse applications that include nuclear microreactors. Heat pipes enable increased reliability in microreactors, as they eliminate the need for reactor coolant pumps and their associated auxiliary systems while resulting in a greatly reduced spatial footprint. Experimental work is needed to support and expedite the design and licensing of heat pipe microreactors, especially the validation of heat pipe performance, as key heat transfer components.

The present work develops a comprehensive heat pipe experimental database covering a wide range of heat pipe operating conditions. In addition, two-phase thermosyphon experiments are conducted to serve as a benchmark for performance. The operating conditions are determined based on previously developed scaling laws for heat pipes and two-phase thermosyphons using low-temperature working fluids. The tested heat pipe is about 2 m long and equipped with in-house-developed annulus screen wicks.

To allow for the investigation of heat pipe flow dynamics, various instruments are incorporated to acquire heat pipe pressures, pressure drops, and temperatures. In particular, a fiberoptic sensor is implemented to measure temperatures along the centerline of the entire heat pipe. The results can be directly applied to the advancement of numerical tools currently under development for heat pipe microreactor analysis.