Heat pipe

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Heat pipe/infobox

The heat pipe can transport heat over longer distances and connect devices which produce and use heat. Currently this is limited to heat exchangers and nuclear reactors.

Heat pipes have a heat capacity of 1 MJ/C. Thus, they can theoretically buffer 500 MJ of heat energy across their working range of 500C to 1000C, making them a space-efficient energy store. However, because temperature needs a drop of greater than 1 degree before it will "flow," you can't raise them all the way to 1000C or drain them all the way to 500C, so the practical energy capacity will depend on the layout.

Direction of transfer

Heat pipes currently are directional and feed heat well in one direction and poorly in the other. Specifically, heat flows well from components placed earlier to components placed later, and poorly in reverse. There is no way of visually identifying which way a heat pipe is laid so care must be taken to place them in order, starting from the reactors and working towards the heat sinks. They are therefore unsuitable for placement by construction bots.

Source

History

• 0.15.0:
  • Introduced

See also

• Nuclear power
  • Heat exchanger