Titanium-potassium heat pipe corrosion studies

An experimental study of the susceptibility of wickless titanium/potassium heat pipes to corrosive attack has been conducted in vacuo at 8000K for 6511h and at 9000K for 4797h without failure or degradation. Some movement of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen was observed in the titanium container tube, but no evidence of attack could be detected in metallographic cross sections of samples taken along the length of the heat pipes. The lack of observable attack of titanium by potassium under these conditions refutes previous reports of Ti-K incompatibility