Active two-phase thermal management systems have been shown to be weight and power effective for space platforms dissipating over 20 kWt of waste heat. A two-phase thermal management system can provide nearly isothermal heat transport at mass flows significantly lower than required for single-phase systems by employing a working fluid's latent heat rather than absorbing the heat sensibly in temperature change. Phase management issues specific to reduced gravity include pump cavitation, loop inventory control and potential dry out in the evaporator. Hamilton Sundstrand has developed and demonstrated in a reduced gravity aircraft environment, a suite of two-phase technologies that manage the liquid-vapor phase distribution. These technologies keep the liquid phase available at the pump inlet for pumping and present at heat acquisition boundaries for evaporation. This paper reviews these technologies for future high power, long duration space platforms.
The transformers in aircraft power conversion are often very heavy and represent a significant fuel or range penalty. Being thermally sized, improved cooling methods would allow downsizing and thereby reduced weight. Since the conductive paths in these metal “dense” devices are good, the controlling thermal resistance is typically the convective coefficient. The goal of this study was to optimize the convective air cooling across transformers by parametrically testing candidate shroud geometries to minimize average and hot spot surface temperatures with minimal fan power. Experimental results from a low velocity wind tunnel were well correlated by CFD modeling, providing confidence in continued shroud development with only CFD or experimentally. A simple cubic test block was selected as surrogate to generalize and simplify both test methods and results. A new “goodness” parameter was developed that included both the heat transfer performance and pressure penalty for a comparative index of shroud designs. The work was divided into two phases. Phase-A used numerical modeling to study a variety of different shapes to select the best for experimental testing. Phase-B included the testing and further parametric evaluation with CFD studies. A parameter was developed that quantified the effect of conductive spreading on the test article surface. Presented here are the results of these studies, where several general shroud shapes emerged as high performance in comparative evaluation. Following the down select, specific geometrical dimensions relative to the duct and mock transformer sizes were further optimized.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.