NASA Lewis Steady-State Heat Pipe Code(LEW-15625-1)

The NASA Lewis Research Center Heat Pipe (LERCHP) code was developed to predict the performance of heat pipes in the steady state. LERCHP can be used as a design tool on a personal computer or, with a suitable calling routine, as a subroutine for a mainframe radiator code. For accurate heat pipe modeling, a variety of wick structures are available to the user, including a user wick input option. Several working fluids can be chosen as well, including potassium, sodium, and lithium, for which the monomer-dimer equilibrium is considered. A vapor flow algorithm is incorporated that treats compressibility and axially varying heat input. LERCHP also facilitates the determination of heat pipe operating temperatures and heat pipe limits that may be encountered at the specified heat input and environment temperature.