Methods for controlling temperature of the instrumentation equipment using the contour heat pipe

Abstract

The paper considers two ways of maintaining temperature of the instrumentation equipment: using the heat pipes equipped with thermoelectric cooling plate on the compensation cavity and the control valve installed at the outlet of the evaporating radiator. Since the temperature of the contour heat pipe is mainly controlled by the temperature of the compensation cavity positioned behind the evaporator, maintaining the high-precision temperature mode of this device is an urgent task for the entire spacecraft thermal regime. In the first method, the evaporating radiator is heated or cooled depending on the plate device polarity. In the second, the compensation chamber temperature could be changed using the steam supplied to the compensation cavity by a regulator installed at the outlet of the evaporator. Temperature control using a valve is due to the fact that the steam of the working fluid enters the bellows under pressure, which depends on the temperature in the evaporator. Pressure difference between steam and gas causes the bellows to contract and expand, while the valve associated with it partially closes the openings in the housing, through which the steam enters the condenser and the compensation cavity. Detailed description of these devices operation is provided, and thermal hydraulic models of the contour heat pipes equipped with these two devices are compiled.