USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation

Archer S Mitchell

Harvey C Nathanson

Robert Samuel Howell

Robert Miles Young

Joseph Terence Smith

Milton J Borgoyn

One example discloses a heat transfer device that can comprise a semiconductor material having a first region and a second region. The first region and the second region are doped to propel a charged carrier from the first region to the second region. The heat transfer device can also comprise an array of pointed tips thermoelectrically communicating with the second region. A heat sink faces the array, and a vacuum tunneling region is formed between the pointed tips and the heat sink. The heat transfer device further can further comprise a power source for biasing the heat sink with respect to the first region. The first region defines an N-type semiconductor material and the second region defines a P-type semiconductor material.

Heat transfer device

An applied traveling potential wave induces a traveling wave of electrical harge in the liquid phase of a dielectric working fluid providing an electrical traction which pumps the working fluid from a condensing section to an evaporating section of an electrohydrodynamic inductively pumped heat pipe. In one embodiment, a surface electrical traction is induced along an open interface that extends along the liquid phase return flow circuit, and in another embodiment, the electrical traction is induced in the liquid bulk of an inhomogeneous dielectric working fluid along the liquid phase return flow circuit.

Electrohydrodynamic inductively pumped heat pipe

Conventional heat pipe performance can be improved by reducing the dependency upon the capillary pumping limitation. Electrodes mounted either in the working fluid vapor or its condensate produce an ion flow directed axially and in the same flow direction. The ion flow, through collision phenomena, picks-up the surrounding low velocity stream, increases its momentum and generates additional pumping pressure for the condensate. Performance can be improved even when low surface tension working fluids are used.

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Silver Spring, MD, United States of America

Archer S Mitchell