Numerical Investigation on Heat-Transfer and Hydromechanical Performance inside Contaminant-Insensitive Sublimators under a Vacuum Environment for Spacecraft Applications

Lijun Gao, Yunze Li, Huijuan Xu, Xin Zhang, Man Yuan and Xianwen Ning
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Lijun Gao: Advanced Research Center of Thermal and New Energy Technologies, Xingtai Polytechnic College, Xingtai 054035, China
Yunze Li: Advanced Research Center of Thermal and New Energy Technologies, Xingtai Polytechnic College, Xingtai 054035, China
Huijuan Xu: Advanced Research Center of Thermal and New Energy Technologies, Xingtai Polytechnic College, Xingtai 054035, China
Xin Zhang: Advanced Research Center of Thermal and New Energy Technologies, Xingtai Polytechnic College, Xingtai 054035, China
Man Yuan: Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Zhengzhou 450045, China
Xianwen Ning: Beijing Key Laboratory of Space Thermal Control Technology, Beijing Institute of Space Systems Engineering, Beijing 100094, China

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 23, 1-21

Abstract: The contaminant-insensitive sublimator (CIS) is a novel water sublimator in development, which uses two porous substrates to separate the sublimation point from the pressure-control point and provide long-life effective cooling for spacecraft. Many essential studies need to be carried out in the field. To overcome the reliability issues such as ice breakthrough caused by large temperature or pressure differences, the CIS development unit model, the mathematical models of heat and mass transfer and the evaluation coefficient have been established. Numerical investigations have been implemented aiming at the impacts of physical properties of porous substrate, physical properties of working fluid, orifice layouts and orifice-structure parameters on the characteristics of flow field and temperature field. The numerical investigation shows some valuable conclusion, such as the temperature uniformity coefficient at the bottom surface of the large pore substrate is 0.997669 and the pressure uniformity coefficient at the same surface is 0.85361267. These numerical results can provide structure and data reference for the CIS design of lunar probe or spacesuit.

Keywords: contaminant-insensitive sublimator; porous substrate; feed-water; working fluid; temperature field; flow field (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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