Spacecraft, Straight-Tube Evaporator Design

Abstract

Two-Phase (liquid-vapor) heat transfer systems are being considered for use on future spacecraft cooling systems operating at high energy levels. The design of straight-tube evaporators was studied for this application. The forced convective boiling phenomenon was examined to determine the characteristics of boiling flow and possible effects of gravitational acceleration. Experiments with straight-tube evaporators indicated that pressure fluctuations caused by slug flow may hamper efforts to build two-phase cooling systems. Upstream orifices and twisted tape inserts were investigated to overcome this problem. A method was also developed to size an evaporator based on the best available correlation equations. Some errors were corrected for flow-boiling heat transfer equations found in the literature.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1985
Accession Number
ADA158757

Entities

People

  • R. E. Eastman

Organizations

  • Wright Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Facilities
  • Boiling Point
  • Boundary Layer
  • Convection
  • Energy
  • Engineering
  • Equations
  • Flow
  • Flow Visualization
  • Heat Energy
  • Heat Transfer
  • Heat Transfer Coefficients
  • Latent Heat
  • Nucleate Boiling
  • Spacecraft
  • Thermal Boundary Layer

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster