Investigation of Super Tube Structure and Performance (Postprint)

Abstract : A new kind of heat transport device introduced by an inventor is intriguing the heat pipe community for the past several years. This device with the resemblance of the hermetically sealed structure and design of a conventional heat pipe or thermosyphon is claimed as thermally superconductive and offers solid state mode of heat transport. A host of speculations about this claim was emerging among research agencies that included academic and government laboratories. In order to explore the potentials of this device, recently Air Force Research Laboratory Propulsion Directorate's Power Division procured super tube hardware and conducted instrumented performance tests and dissection examination of the structure and inside contents. Heat transport performance test results of one stainless steel super tube and dissection, metallurgical/spectrographic examination of several copper and stainless steel super tubes are presented here. In conclusion, this investigation did not find anything substantive in these devices to validate any new phenomenon or breakthrough in heat transport capacity that exceeded what the state of the art heat pipe technology can offer.