Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : September 03, 2023 - September 06, 2023
We have fabricated and characterized a battery case containing a solidified phase change material (PCM) of tungsten-doped vanadium dioxide (VWO2) as a heat storage material for a thermal control method for CubeSat electric power systems. Regarding the severe space and weight constraints for CubeSat implementation, we successfully fabricated the desired battery case by solidifying VWO2, which undergoes a phase transition within the target temperature range, combining it with an epoxy resin to form a block, and processing it to accommodate commercial cylindrical 18650 lithium-ion cells. When the battery case containing the PCM was exposed to a temperature environment simulating Earth orbit, temperature measurements on the surface of the battery case confirmed that the phase transition of VWO2 occurred within the desired temperature range during both cooling and heating, thus realizing a power source with high stability suitable for CubeSats.
