RAILWAYS QUALIFICATION TESTS OF A CAPILLARY PUMPED LOOP ON A TRAIN

Abstract

Capillary Pumped Loop can be used for cooling of high power electronics. The present paper describes the world's first use of a CPL inboard a train. The CPLIP-3 demonstrator used two CPLs equipped with two flat evaporators in parallel, a common air exchanger and filled with methanol as working fluid with a 6 microns nickel wick. The total power transferred is up to 10 kW during cycle and the investigated heat flux ranges, in for saturation condition between 59°C to 93°C, from 4 to 27 W/cm2. The commercial tests are still running and until now more than 24000 km have been covered. The results show an excellent thermal resistance, a versatile location of the components and the total cost of ownership of the technology permit to be confident in the capabilities of CPL to replace actual technologies i.e. dry panel, heat pipes or mechanically pumped cooling systems. The works have been performed through a concurrent engineering collaboration between Alstom Transport (ATSA) and Euro Heat Pipes (EHP).