Advanced Thermal Insulation Layers with Row of Heat Pipes : 2nd Report, Experimental Results

Abstract

This study is concerned with the method of improving the performance of insulating porous layers which contain a thermal screen consisting of a row of heat pipes. Two experiments are conducted : one using porous layers consisting of nitrogen gas of high pressure and glass beads, and another using a Hele-Shaw cell with encapsulated liquid crystal migrated into a test liquid. It is experimentally confirmed that the thermal screen introduces strong uniformity in temperature distributions such that temperature profiles approach to those for thermal conduction and that the thermal screen can suppress convection in the insulating porous layers and improve the performance of the insulation.