An advanced thermal control technique for aircraft anti-icing/de-icing based on loop heat pipes

Aircraft icing occurs when flying through clouds containing supercooled droplets, imposing a serious threat to flight safety. Fortunately, considerable waste heat exists on aircraft that urgently needs to be dissipated to ensure the temperatures of heat-producing elements lie within certain reasonable ranges. A loop heat pipe emerged as a passive and efficient heat exchanger that can transfer the waste heat to icing surfaces, satisfying the dual needs of heat dissipation and ice protection. In this chapter, the introduction of loop heat pipes is first given, followed by the environmental conditions aboard aircraft. Then, the design of a loop heat pipe anti-icing/de-icing system is reported. A series of optimization techniques for system performance enhancement are finally listed. This chapter aims to provide guidance for developing an advanced thermal control technique that focuses on applying loop heat pipes to aircraft anti-icing/de-icing and simultaneous cooling of heat-producing elements.