Thermal chamber design for a ground loop heat pipe experiment

The thermal chamber test will provide the ground experimental test (EM) of the propylene LHP system for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (the so-called ‘AMS-02’ project for the International Space Station). During this experiment, made in Shandong University (Cina, Jinan) in the context of the AMS-02’ project, some working points will be analyzed as the operation of a by-pass valve and the operating life of the loop heat pipe. The objective of this paper is to show how the thermal chamber experiment may obtain heat transfers comparable with the worst conditions in the space: the so called “hottest” and “coldest” case. Because between these two cases there are other boundary conditions for the LHP, the analysis has to point out if there are different ways to achieve the wanted conditions paying attention to the costs. The thermal chamber acts as a boundary condition for the radiator, then the first step was to find the reproducible temperature range. The second step was to chose, by numerical calculation, the best insulating material and the most suitable refrigerant. Finally the design of the refrigerant system was carried out.