Sorption heat pipe (SHP) is beneficial for the high power electronic components cooling (laser diodes, IGBT, thyristors etc.), especially for transport applications and for the space two-phase thermal control systems.

    SHP is suggested for space and ground application due to its insensitivity to some g acceleration. This device can be composed of a loop heat pipe (LHP), or capillary pumped loop (CPL) and a solid sorption cooler. The most essential feature is that LHP and SHP have the same evaporator, but are working alternatively out of phase. SHP can be applied as a cryogenic cooler, or as a fluid storage canister. When it is used for cryogenic thermal control of a spacecraft on the orbit (cold plate for infrared observation of the earth, or space), or efficient electronic components cooling device (lased diode), it is considered as a cooler. When it is applied as a cryogenic storage system, it insures the low pressure of cryogenic fluid inside the sorbent material at room temperature.

   SHP includes the advantages of conventional heat pipes and sorption machines in one unit. The major advantage is ability to ensure the convective two-phase heat transfer through capillary-porous wick under the pressure drop due to sorbent wick action inside the heat pipe. In SHP the same working fluid is used as a sorbate and as a heat transfer medium.

    Sorption heat pipe cooler has some advantages comparing to conventional loop heat pipe coolers in some cases, when the following is:

• operation at large accelerations,
• higher pumping capability, more intense heat transfer in the evaporator are required,
• functioning of SHP evaporator at temperature lower than the environmental one is necessary.

    The heat output of developed SHP is about 1000 W (working fluid is water), the thermal resistance of the evaporator is 0.03 K/W.