Research on the Heat Transfer Characteristics of a Loop Heat Pipe Used as Mainline Heat Transfer Mode for Spacecraft

An experimental research is conducted on the heat transfer characteristics of a loop heat pipe(LHP)used in the"mainline"heat transfer mode for spacecraft platform thermal control.The heat from multiple instruments scattered in different locations is collected by thermal control techniques such as axially grooved heat pipes and then transmitted to the radiant surface for dissipation through the LHP in an unified way.The research contents include the start-up characteristics,the operational stability characteristics,the operational blocking characteristics,the continuous blocking characteristics,the heat transfer capability,the thermal resistance,and the dynamic response characteristics under the change of the heat sink temperature.The results show that the higher the auxiliary starting power is,the easier it is to start the LHP;the higher the input power of the thermoelectric cooler is,the more beneficial it is to speed up the stabilization of the vapor-liquid interface in the condenser;the higher the blocking power,the shorter the blocking time of the LHP;the LHP can be operated stably within the heat sink temperature alteration process;the heat transfer ability is higher than 500 W with a systematic thermal resistance of 0.037℃/W.

Thermal performance of a 3D printed lattice-structure heat sink packaging phase change material

Thermal storage technology is becoming more and more significant with the increase of high-power equipment in space applications.In this paper,3 D printing technology and Phase Change Material(PCM)were combined into a Thermal Energy Storage(TES)system,which could fulfill the requirements of light weight and high thermal conductivity.A 3 D-printed lattice-structure TES plate with N-tetradecane as the PCM and aluminum alloy as the thermal conductivity enhancer was manufactured,and experimentally tested in a thermal vacuum chamber.In addition,a simplified simulation model of the lattice cell was established to clearly analyze the heat transfer process of the TES plate.The effects of initial temperature distribution and heat load gradient on the thermal storage performances were investigated experimentally and theoretically.The equivalent thermal conductivity of the 3 D-printed lattice-structure TES plate turns out to be 13 times of the pure PCM thanks to the aluminum skeleton.The heat transfer enhancement appears at the end of the phase change stage due to the sudden mixture of the PCM with different temperature.The simulation results agree well with the experimental data.The equivalent thermal conductivity obtained by the phase change simulations are a little higher than those of the experiments,which is mainly caused by the initial uneven temperature distribution in the tests.Additionally,the effects of non-uniform heat load and the presence of the PCM in the TES plate are studied.This work successfully validates the feasibility and effectiveness of 3 D printing technology and TES technology for the temperature control in space applications.

An equivalent ground thermal test method for single-phase fluid loop space radiator

Thermal vacuum test is widely used for the ground validation of spacecraft thermal control system. However, the conduction and convection can be simulated in normal ground pressure environment completely. By the employment of pumped fluid loops＇ thermal control technology on spacecraft, conduction and convection become the main heat transfer behavior between radiator and inside cabin. As long as the heat transfer behavior between radiator and outer space can be equivalently simulated in normal pressure, the thermal vacuum test can be substituted by the normal ground pressure thermal test. In this paper, an equivalent normal pressure thermal test method for the spacecraft single-phase fluid loop radiator is proposed. The heat radiation between radiator and outer space has been equivalently simulated by combination of a group of refrigerators and thermal electrical cooler（TEC） array. By adjusting the heat rejection of each device, the relationship between heat flux and surface temperature of the radiator can be maintained. To verify this method,a validating system has been built up and the experiments have been carried out. The results indicate that the proposed equivalent ground thermal test method can simulate the heat rejection performance of radiator correctly and the temperature error between in-orbit theory value and experiment result of the radiator is less than 0.5 C, except for the equipment startup period. This provides a potential method for the thermal test of space systems especially for extra-large spacecraft which employs single-phase fluid loop radiator as thermal control approach.

膜通道内矩形翼对流传质强化效果的数值研究（英文）

Numerical calculations were conducted to simulate the flow and mass transfer in narrow membrane channels with and without flow disturbers. The channel consists of an impermeable solid wall and a membrane surface with a spacing of 2.0 mm. The flow disturbers studied include rectangular winglets, which are often used as longitudinal vortex generators to enhance heat transfer in heat exchanger applications, as well as square prism, triangular prism, and circular cylinder, which are used here to mimic the traditional spacer filaments for comparison of their abilities in enhancing the convective mass transfer near the membrane surface to alleviate the concentration polarization. The disturber performance was evaluated in terms of concentration polarization factor versus consumed pumping power, with a larger factor meaning a more serious concentration polarization.Calculations were carried out for Na Cl solution flow with Reynolds numbers ranging from 400 to 1000. The results show that the traditional flow disturbers can considerably reduce the concentration polarization but cause a substantial pressure drop, while the rectangular winglets can effectively reduce the concentration polarization with a much less pressure drop penalty. The rectangular winglets were optimized in geometry under equal pumping power condition.

膜通道内三角翼对流传质强化效果及其与矩形翼的比较（英文）

Numerical calculations were conducted to simulate the flow and mass transfer in narrow membrane channels equipped with delta winglets,which are often used as longitudinal vortex generators to enhance heat transfer in heat exchanger applications.The channel consists of an impermeable solid wall and a membrane.The delta winglets are attached to the solid wall surface to enhance the mass transfer near the membrane surface and suppress the concentration polarization.The winglet performance was evaluated in terms of concentration polarization factor versus consumed pumping power.Calculations were implemented for NaCl solution flow in a membrane channel having a height of 2.0 mm for Reynolds numbers ranging from 400 to 1000.The delta winglets were optimized under equal pumping power condition,and the results of optimization suggest winglet height of 5/6 of the channel height,aspect ratio of 2.0,attack angle of 30°,and a winglet interval equal to the channel height.The optimal delta winglets were compared with the optimal rectangular winglets we found previously,and it is shown that the rectangular winglets yield a somewhat better performance than the delta winglets.

First high-frequency pulse tube cryocooler down to 2.5 K and its promising application in China’s deep space exploration

From the Moon,Mars,to the central body of the solar system,the Sun,and even exoplanets,deep space exploration[1]has promoted research on the formation and evolution of the solar system and the universe,especially,in terms of tracing life’s origins.The inherent characteristic of high energy flux density determines that space detectors cannot fully dissipate heat through radiative cooling under the cosmic microwave background radiation temperature of 2.7 K.

Flow Boiling of Ammonia in a Diamond-Made MicroChannel Heat Sink for High Heat Flux Hotspots

To solve the heat dissipation problem of electronic devices with high heat flux hotspots,a diamond microchannel heat sink consisting of 37 parallel triangular microchannels with channel lengths of 45 mm and hydraulic diameters of 280|im was designed.The flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of ammonia in the microchannels were investigated under high heat fluxes of 473.9-1000.4 W/cm^2.Saturated flow boiling experiments with saturation temperatures of 25℃,30℃,and 35℃ and mass fluxes of 98-1200 kg/m^2s were conducted,as well as subcooled flow boiling with inlet subcooling of 5℃ as a comparison.The temperature and pressure drop measurements were analyzed.The main conclusions below can be drawn.(1)At a given heat flux,the heat source temperature first decreased and then increased with the mass flux,and there existed an optimum mass flux to optimize the cooling performance of the heat sink.(2)The heat transfer performance under the saturated inlet condition was obviously better than that under the subcooled inlet condition.(3)A larger saturation temperature leaded to weakening of both the heat transfer capacity and the stability of the microchannel heat sink.Notably,with the high heat diffusion ability of the diamond substrate and the great heat transfer capacity of ammonia flow boiling in microchannels,the heat sink can achieve a heat removal capacity of up to 1000.4 W/cm^2.

Influences of mass flow rate on heat and mass transfer performances of water sublimator combined with fluid loop

For spacecraft working in vacuum environment, sublimator is an effective heat rejection approach to reject system's peak heat load, and supplement spacecraft radiation heat rejection. For a spacecraft active fluid loop thermal control system combined with sublimator, waste heat generated from multi-point distributed heat sources could be collected by the fluid loop efficiently. However, the heat and mass transfer performances of the sublimator combined with fluid loop have not been adequately studied in previous research, especially for the influences of the heat load. Since work fluid mass flow rate is the main factor affecting heat load of the fluid loop, this context experimentally studied influences of the fluid loop mass flow rate on sublimator start-up transient characteristics, including heat transfer performances, response time, and work stability. Results indicated that the fluid loop mass flow rate affected the sublimator heat and mass transfer performances obviously, but the heat rejection ability is not always increase with the increasing of the fluid loop mass flow rate. In addition, we obtained the condition to judge whether there is a positive correlation between heat rejection ability and fluid loop mass flow rate.

Experimental investigation on operating behaviors of loop heat pipe with thermoelectric cooler under acceleration conditions

An experimental study was carried out in this article to investigate the transient operating performance of a Dual Compensation Chamber Loop Heat Pipe(DCCLHP) with Thermoelectric Cooler(TEC) under acceleration conditions and ammonia was selected as the working fluid.For the purpose of comparison, experimental work was conducted under terrestrial gravity.Sensitivity analysis was performed to explore the effect of several control parameters such as the heat load, acceleration magnitude and TEC assist on the startup and operating performance of the DCCLHP.Experimental results indicate that the DCCLHP can get to a steady-state operation when the heat load changes from 25 W to 300 W under terrestrial gravity.While under acceleration conditions, the DCCLHP can work at a high operating temperature or even fail to operate, which shows the acceleration effect plays a significant impact on the loop operation.The TEC assist with power of 10 W can improve the operating performance and reduce the operating temperature for the case of small heat load and acceleration magnitude.When the acceleration exceeds 3 g at large heat load, the effect of TEC assist on the operation at large heat load can be ignored.

Ground-based investigations on phase-moving phenomenon with space sublimation cooling for lunar exploration missions

The lunar surface is a typical vacuum environment,and its harsh heat rejection conditions bring great challenges to the thermal control technology of the exploration mission.In addition to the radiator,the sublimator is recommended as one of the promising options for heat rejection.The sublimator makes use of water to freeze and sublimate in a porous medium,rejecting heat to the vacuum environment.The complex heat and mass transfer process involves many physical phenomena such as the freezing and sublimation phase change of water in the porous medium and the movement of the phase-change interface.In this paper,the visualized ground-based experimental approaches of space sublimation cooling were presented to reveal the moving law of threephase point and the growth phenomenon of ice-peak and icicle in microchannels under vacuum conditions.The visualized experiments and results prove that the freezing ice is divided into the porous ice-peak and the transparent icicle.As the sublimation progresses,the phase-change interface moves downward steadily,the length of the ice-peak increases,but the icicle decreases.The visualized experiments of space sublimation cooling in the capillary have guiding significance to reveal the sublimation cooling mechanism of water in the sublimator for lunar exploration missions.

The Medium Energy X-ray telescope (ME) onboard the Insight-HXMT astronomy satellite

The Medium Energy X-ray telescope(ME) is one of the three main telescopes on board the Insight hard X-ray modulation telescope(Insight-HXMT) astronomy satellite. ME contains 1728 pixels of Si-PIN detectors sensitive in 5-30 ke V with a total geometrical area of 952 cm^2. The application specific integrated circuit(ASIC) chip, VA32TA6, is used to achieve low power consumption and low readout noise. The collimators define three kinds of field of views(FOVs) for the telescope, 1°×4°, 4°×4°,and blocked ones. Combination of such FOVs can be used to estimate the in-orbit X-ray and particle background components.The energy resolution of ME is ~3 ke V at 17.8 ke V(FWHM) and the time resolution is 255 μs. In this paper, we introduce the design and performance of ME.