Expert: Mark Janus - 3/27/2010

Question
Can a gravity designed heat pipe work with an intermittent G-Force.
example: a heat pipe in a race car racing on an oval track? Around the oval the car would be subject to a G-Force. in the straight away there would be little or no G-Force.

Best Regards,

Gerard

Answer
Hi Gerard,

Not exactly my area of expertise, but I would say it may not work as efficiently, but believe that it would work... gravity will still have an effect so if you incline the heat pipe to benefit from the intermittent G-force be sure to account for the gravitational force that is always present....  

gravity is used to return the condensed fluid back to the "heat source" and hence I would say any form of acceleration (such as centripetal in the case of the race car) could be replaced (or augment the process)...

Again, this is not my area of expertise though...
mj