On 4th March 2020, Marie Levêque defended her thesis. Awarded by Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier University, her work was realized both at Laplace and IRT Saint Exupéry, under the supervision of the MEGeP doctoral school.
The high quality and the relevance of Marie’s thesis contributed to get significant results as a part of SOCOOL (SOlutions for COOLing) project.
THESIS SUBJECT
“Experimental study and modeling of a hybrid pumping capillary mechanical two-phase loop”
About this thesis
This work presents a study on the pump assistance of a capillary two-phase loop. This coupling should permit to extend the operating range of these loops to environments with demanding thermal and mechanical specification as it exists in aerospace applications. An experimental bench has been developed in order to investigate the coupling behavior of a CPL (Capillary Pumped Loop) and a centrifugal pump in series. We found that the possibility to extend the pumping capacity from 10 kPa to 60 kPa, i.e. far further than the evaporator limit (capillary limit). Thermal performance were increased by the additional sub-cooling from the pump. This coupling robustness was also observed during the application of severe solicitations (power cycle, start-up). The system modeling showed that the vapor percolation/condensation process at the inlet of the evaporator significantly affected the evaporator dynamics so that the reduction of these mechanism is decisive in order to optimize the system control. In a last part, preliminary results obtained for a pump placed at the reservoir inlet were presented. We found that in this case, the system control became more difficult because of the liquid mass redistribution between condenser and reservoir. However, modeling identified stabilizing factors (condenser performance, pressure drop, pump characteristic) which could permits the pump assistance of LHP (Loop Heat Pipe).
SOCOOL PROJECT
Looking at cooling solutions for any environment.
JURY
| Hasna LOUAHLIA | Rapporter | Professor / LUSAC (Caen) |
| Vincent PLATEL | Rapporter | Lecturer / LaTEP (Tarbes) |
| Souad HARMAND | Examiner | Professor / LAMIH (Valenciennes) |
| Xavier ROBOAM | Examiner | Professor / LAPLACE (Toulouse) |
| Sébastien DUTOUR | Examiner | Lecturer / LAPLACE (Toulouse) |
| Marc MISCEVIC | Thesis Director | Lecturer / LAPLACE (Toulouse) |
| Yves BERTIN | Thesis Director | Professor / Institut Pprime (Poitiers) |
| Laura FOURGEAUD | Invited | Researcher / IRT Saint Exupéry |
PUBLICATIONS
“Experimental study of a Capillary Pumped Loop assisted with a mechanical pump placed at the evaporator” M. Levêque, S. Dutour, J. Lluc, P. Lavieille, M. Miscevic, Y. Bertin, R. Mari, L. Fourgeaud – Applied Thermal Engineering – 2020, vol. 169, 114850 – DOI
“A theoretical investigation of a controlled hybrid mechanical/capillary pumped loop” M. Levêque, S. Dutour, M. Miscevic, P. Lavieille, Y. Bertin, R. Mari – IHPC & IHPS 2018 (19th International Heat Pipe Conference and 13th international heat pipe symphosium) – June 10-14, 2018 – Pisa, Italy