Patent ID: 8579018

Claim:
A sandwich panel heat pipe for transferring heat between a higher temperature region and a lower temperature region, the sandwich panel heat pipe comprising: a first face sheet; a second face sheet; a three-dimensional ordered open-cellular micro-truss core between the first face sheet and the second face sheet; a working fluid in the ordered open-cellular micro-truss core, the three-dimensional ordered open-cellular micro-truss core comprising a vapor region and a liquid region, the vapor region being for transporting a vapor phase portion of the working fluid from the higher temperature region to the lower temperature region, and the liquid region being for transporting a liquid phase portion of the working fluid from the lower temperature region to the higher temperature region; and a mesh structure configured to separate the vapor region from the liquid region and having pores smaller than the liquid region and the vapor region; wherein: the three-dimensional ordered open-cellular micro-truss core comprises a plurality of first truss elements extending along a first direction; a plurality of second truss elements extending along a second direction; and a plurality of third truss elements extending along a third direction, and the first, second, and third ordered truss elements interpenetrate each other at a plurality of nodes to form a continuous material having a plurality of unit cells and some of the first, second, and third ordered truss elements interpenetrate the mesh structure.