Week 6

        As mentioned last week, new materials had to be bought due to the lack of flexibility in regards to the heat pipe's liquid volume. Over the weekend, the aforementioned Teflon tape was bought; however, instead of the threaded copper cap, a copper male adapter and a brass cap were bought instead. In order for copper to be threaded, it would need to be thick; however, a cap is supposed to be thin. To overcome this issue, a male adapter and a brass cap were used. On the lab day of week six, the heat pipe was constructed in the machine shop.

        Scotch-Brite was used to clean and smoothen the materials for ease of attachment. Flux coating was then applied to the areas that were going to be soldered together. A thread composed of lead and other metals was then melted along the enclosures that were to be soldered and therefore sealed. After soldering both ends and letting it cool, Teflon tape was wrapped around the threaded male adapter and a wrench was used to tighten the brass cap.

        Testing ensued: the pipe was tilted at about an angle of 45° and testing lasted for about ten minutes. Results only accounted for six minutes of the experimentation due to human error and mid-adjustments made throughout the running experiment. The blower's position was changed midway. The thermometer was not consistently in contact with the heat pipe in terms of position. Data was collected as best as possible, but many problems had occurred regardless.

        The rest of the lab day was then spent on measuring the amount of fluid used as there was no actual liquid measurement tool to do so. It was determined that 87mL was used during the test, and the entire heat pipe itself can hold 200mL. Next week, a rough final draft will be completed and another test will be held for more accurate results.