Phase Change Material for Spacecraft Thermal Management
Abstract
Processes related to phase change encompass a wide range of engineering and scientific disciplines and occur in many applications. Owing to the release or absorption of latent heat, these phase change problems are nonlinear, and exact solutions are limited to a small class of problems involving pure substances in one-dimensional infinite or semi-infinite domains. Based on an enthalpy formulation, several models have been studied for solving the phase change heat transfer problem of melting. In this report, a continuum model is presented and utilized in a finite-difference numerical method. Thermophysical properties of the PCM (Phase Change Material) such as mass density, specific heat, thermal conductivity, etc. change while the PCM undergoes the solid-liquid phase change. Accommodation methods for these variations have been developed and are presented. The mathematical and numerical formulations of the conservation of mass, momentum and energy equations and thermodynamic property equations are presented in detail. Limited preliminary results for P116 wax show velocity vector fields and the liquidus lines during melting. Keywords: Phase change material, Thermal storage, Spacecraft thermal control.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA224865
Entities
People
- Chen Wen
- J. W. Sheffield