Proposal of Microgravity Experiments on Forced Convection Boiling in Orbit

Abstract

Increase in the satellite size and corresponding power consumption requires the development of thermal management system handling a large amount of waste heat and its transportation along a long distance to the radiators. Boiling and two-phase flow becomes a powerful means for this purpose because it transports latent heat of vaporization. It minimizes the size of cold plates, liquid flow rate, i.e. pump power, and launch mass. In the present paper, ISS experiment on forced convection boiling is proposed to obtain the data for the design of the high performance space thermal management systems based on the analysis of liquid-vapor flow structures and heat transfer characteristics under microgravity conditions. Subjects to be investigated in the proposed experiment and the outline of experimental setup are clarified. Key Word: flow boiling, two-boiling, microgravity, reduced gravity, ISS