A technology demonstration Loop Heat Pipe (LHP) has been tested extensively in support of the implementation of this two-phase thermal control technology on NASA's Earth Observing System Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument. This cryogenic instrument is being developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA. This paper reports on the transient characterization testing results for a propylene LHP. Steady state performance and model correlation results can be found elsewhere [l]. A test program was developed to characterize the startup and shutdown transient behavior of a propylene LHP with a large mass attached to the evaporator. The LHP was tested over the expected operational temperature and power range during ground test operations and in flight for the TES instrument. In addition, a start-up heater was implemented on the LHP evaporator and tested under similar conditions. Transient results show the magnitude of the overshoot with and without the start-up heater. Recommendations are made for future applications and additional research on this topic.
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