Thermal Performance Evaluation of Space Radiator for Single-Phase Mechanically Pumped Fluid Loop

Abstract

This paper presents the experimental and analytical results of a heat rejection system consisting of a single-phase mechanically pumped loop and a space radiator. It has been developed for future crewed exploration missions to provide a large amount of heat dissipation capability. The radiator consists of a honeycomb radiator, eight aluminum pipes inserted through the honeycomb core, and two aluminum manifolds joined at both ends of the eight pipes. A graphite sheet is attached to the back of the aluminum skin, facing deep space to improve the thermal diffusivity in the in-plane direction. Silverized Teflon® tapes are put on the surface of the skin on the deep-space side, and the surface of the opposite skin is covered with multilayer insulation. A gap between the radiator surface and the flow channel protects against micrometeoroids and orbital debris. A thermal vacuum test was conducted to evaluate the thermal performance of the radiator. The coolant was HFE7200, and its flow rate was varied from about 50 to 200 kg/h. More than 50 temperatures across the radiator surface were measured for each case. Thermal Desktop® and SINDA/FLUINT software were used to develop the thermal mathematical model, which was correlated with the test results and evaluated through thermal analysis. The fin efficiency of the radiator increased with the mass flow rate of the coolant, reaching 0.9 or higher.

The high energy spaceborne all-solid-state lasers based on fluid-loop cooling system

“…As an important active thermal control technology, a fluid loop system uses the pump to drive the forced fluid-convectioncirculation for temperature control, has been widely applied in many domestic and foreign spacecraft [15][16][17][18]. In order to meet the heat dissipation requirements of this laser mentioned above, the fluid circuit system based on the PEHE is designed, and the composition schematic diagram is shown in figure 2.…”

Optimization of novel flat serial single-phase radiators for spacecraft thermal control

“…Validation of conjugate heat transfer analysis. The experimental results reported by Iwata et al 30 are used to validate the conjugate heat transfer analysis methodology, throughout this section. They reported that the experiments were carried out in a thermo-vacuum chamber, where a pressure of 10 À3 Pa and shroud temperature of 100 K are maintained.…”

“…Inputs for the validation case. 30 Area of radiating surface 0.648 m 2 Emissivity of radiating surface 0.9 Sink temperature À173°C…”