Spacecraft, Straight-Tube Evaporator Design.

Abstract

This thesis is to involve researching the design of straight-tube evaporators for spacecraft, cooling systems. The forced-convective boiling phenomenon was studied to determine the characteristics of boiling flow and how gravitational acceleration affects this process. In addition to this theoretical study, an experimental evaporator was built to investigate the operation of straight-tube evaporators. It was found that pressure fluctuations caused by slug flow may hamper efforts to build two-phase, cooling systems. To overcome this problem, the use of upstream orifices and twisted-tape inserts to stabilize the flow were also investigated. Also, a method for sizing an evaporator, based on the best available method of calculating the local, heat-transfer coefficients, was developed. And finally, all of this information was used to develop a computer program to design straight-tube evaporators. Keywords include: Two-phase boiling, Boiling, Forced convection, Spacecraft cooling systems, and Spacecraft evaporators.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1985
Accession Number
ADA154462

Entities

People

  • R. E. Eastman

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Boiling Point
  • Boundary Layer
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Convection
  • Cooling
  • Energy
  • Engineering
  • Flow Visualization
  • Heat Energy
  • Heat Of Vaporization
  • Heat Transfer
  • Heat Transfer Coefficients
  • Latent Heat
  • Reynolds Number
  • Spacecraft
  • Thermal Boundary Layer

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Robotics and Automation.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster