The operation characteristics of variable conductance heat pipe(VCHP) were numerically investigated by using 1-dimensional diffuse-front model. For different boundary conditions, the amount of non-condensible gas charge and dimension of gas reservoir were obtained by iterative calculation. It is found that the amount of non-condensible gas charge and dimensions of gas reservoir have an effect on the temperature control of condenser for the given operating condition of VCHP. The numerical results show that VCHP has an excellent capability of temperature control when subjected to a change in the heat input.