Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Heat conduction”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1992

Computer Program For Variable-Conductance Heat Pipes

VCHPDA provides accurate mathematical models of transient as well as steady-state performance of variable-conductance heat pipes over wide range of operating conditions. Applies to heat pipes with either cold, wicked or hot, nonwicked gas reservoirs and uses ideal-gas law and "flat-front" (negligible vapor diffusion) gas theory. Calculates length of gas-blocked region and temperature of vapor in active portion of heat pipe by solving set of nonlinear equations for conservation of energy and mass. Written in FORTRAN 77.

Antoniuk, D.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Variable Conductance Heat Pipe Cooling of Stirling Convertor and General Purpose Heat Source

In a Stirling Radioisotope Power System (RPS), heat must be continuously removed from the General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) modules to maintain the modules and surrounding insulation at acceptable temperatures. The Stirling convertor normally provides this cooling. If the Stirling convertor stops in the current system, the insulation is designed to spoil, preventing damage to the GPHS at the cost of an early termination of the mission. An alkali-metal Variable Conductance Heat Pipe (VCHP) can be used to passively allow multiple stops and restarts of the Stirling convertor. In a previous NASA SBIR Program, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT) developed a series of sodium VCHPs as backup cooling systems for Stirling RPS. The operation of these VCHPs was demonstrated using Stirling heater head simulators and GPHS simulators. In the most recent effort, a sodium VCHP with a stainless steel envelope was designed, fabricated and tested at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) with a Stirling convertor for two concepts; one for the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) back up cooling system and one for the Long-lived Venus Lander thermal management system. The VCHP is designed to activate and remove heat from the stopped convertor at a 19 degC temperature increase from the nominal vapor temperature. The 19 degC temperature increase from nominal is low enough to avoid risking standard ASRG operation and spoiling of the Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI). In addition, the same backup cooling system can be applied to the Stirling convertor used for the refrigeration system of the Long-lived Venus Lander. The VCHP will allow the refrigeration system to: 1) rest during transit at a lower temperature than nominal; 2) pre-cool the modules to an even lower temperature before the entry in Venus atmosphere; 3) work at nominal temperature on Venus surface; 4) briefly stop multiple times on the Venus surface to allow scientific measurements. This paper presents the experimental results from integrating the VCHP with an operating Stirling convertor and describes the methodology used to achieve their successful combined operation.

Stirling Radioisotope Power System↗
DOE OSTI2020

Contribution of the Hydroxyl Group on Interfacial Heat Conduction of Monohydric Alcohols: A Molecular Dynamics Study

Monohydric alcohols have been used as promising phase change materials (PCMs) for low-temperature latent heat storage. However, the heat storage/retrieval rates are limited due to the low thermal conductivity of such alcohols. In this work, nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations were performed to study the microscopic heat conduction in example monohydric alcohols, i.e., 1-dodecanol (C12H26O), 1-tetradecanol (C14H30O), and 1-hexadecanol (C16H34O). A simplified ideal crystal model was proposed to exploit the potential for improving the thermal conductivity of monohydric alcohols. The effect of ideal crystalline structures, especially the contribution of the hydroxyl group, on the microscopic heat conduction process was analyzed. The thermal conductivity of the ideal crystals of the various monohydric alcohols was predicted to be more than twice as compared to that of their respective solids. The major thermal resistance in the ideal crystals was found around the molecular interfaces, as a result of the excellent heat conduction performance along the linear molecular chains. The calculated vibrational density of states (VDOS) and interfacial heat transfer were then investigated. When the interfaces are surrounded by hydroxyl groups as walls, strong hydrogen bond (HB) interactions were observed. The interfacial heat transfer coefficient of the ideal crystalline structures of 1-tetradecanol was found to reach up to ~735.6 MW/m2 W. It was elucidated that the high interfacial heat transfer rate is clearly related to the stronger intermolecular interactions.

Engineering↗
NASA NTRS1976

Flight data analysis and further development of variable-conductance heat pipes

Continuing efforts in large gains in heat-pipe performance are reported. It was found that gas-controlled variable-conductance heat pipes can perform reliably for long periods in space and effectively provide temperature stabilization for spacecraft electronics. A solution was formulated that allows the control gas to vent through arterial heat-pipe walls, thus eliminating the problem of arterial failure under load, due to trace impurities of noncondensable gas trapped in an arterial bubble during priming. This solution functions well in zero gravity. Another solution was found that allows priming at a much lower fluid charge. A heat pipe with high capacity, with close temperature control of the heat source and independent of large variations in sink temperature was fabricated.

Enginer, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1978

CTS-type variable conductance heat pipes for SEP FM/PPU

The development effort for, and the fabrication and testing of, six CTS-type variable conductance heat pipes is described. The heat pipes are constructed of stainless steel, use methanol as a working fluid, and a nitrogen/helium mixture as the control gas. The wicking structure consists of interior wall grooves, a metal-felt diametral slab wick, and two wire-mesh arteries. The heat pipes are used to cool two Functional Model/Power Processing Units in a Solar Electric Propulsion prototype BIMOD thruster subsystem assembly. The Power Processing Units convert the electric power from a spacecraft solar array system to the voltages required to operate the electric thrusters which are part of the BIMOD assembly.

Antoniuk, D.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Verification of MOOSE/Bison's Heat Conduction Solver Using Combined Spatiotemporal Convergence Analysis

Bison is a computational physics code that uses the finite element method to model the thermo-mechanical response of nuclear fuel. Since Bison is used to inform high-consequence decisions, it is important that its computational results are reliable and predictive. One important step in assessing the reliability and predictive capabilities of a simulation tool is the verification process, which quantifies numerical errors in a discrete solution relative to the exact solution of the mathematical model. One step in the verification process—called code verification—ensures that the implemented numerical algorithm is a faithful representation of the underlying mathematical model, including partial differential or integral equations, initial and boundary conditions, and auxiliary relationships. In this paper, the code verification process is applied to spatiotemporal heat conduction problems in Bison. Simultaneous refinement of the discretization in space and time is employed to reveal any potential mistakes in the numerical algorithms for the interactions between the spatial and temporal components of the solution. For each verification problem, the correct spatial and temporal order of accuracy is demonstrated for both first- and second-order accurate finite elements and a variety of time-integration schemes. Furthermore, these results provide strong evidence that the Bison numerical algorithm for solving spatiotemporal problems reliably represents the underlying mathematical model in MOOSE. The selected test problems can also be used in other simulation tools that numerically solve for conduction or diffusion.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS1975

Solution of the equation of heat conduction with time dependent sources: Programmed application to planetary thermal history

A computer program (Program SPHERE) solving the inhomogeneous equation of heat conduction with radiation boundary condition on a thermally homogeneous sphere is described. The source terms are taken to be exponential functions of the time. Thermal properties are independent of temperature. The solutions are appropriate to studying certain classes of planetary thermal history. Special application to the moon is discussed.

Conel, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Development of a high capacity variable conductance heat pipe.

The high-capacity, pressure-primed, tunnel-artery wick concept was used in a gas-controlled variable conductance heat pipe. A variety of techniques were employed to control the size of gas/vapor bubbles trapped within the artery. Successful operation was attained with a nominal 6-foot long, 1-inch diameter cold reservoir VCHP using ammonia working fluid and nitrogen control gas. The pipe contained a heat exchanger to subcool the liquid in the artery. Maximum transport capacity with a 46-inch effective length was 1200 watts level (more than 50,000 watt-inches) and 800 watts at 0.5-inch adverse tilt.

Kosson, R.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Hierarchical Parallelism in Finite Difference Analysis of Heat Conduction

Based on the concept of hierarchical parallelism, this research effort resulted in highly efficient parallel solution strategies for very large scale heat conduction problems. Overall, the method of hierarchical parallelism involves the partitioning of thermal models into several substructured levels wherein an optimal balance into various associated bandwidths is achieved. The details are described in this report. Overall, the report is organized into two parts. Part 1 describes the parallel modelling methodology and associated multilevel direct, iterative and mixed solution schemes. Part 2 establishes both the formal and computational properties of the scheme.

Padovan, Joseph↗
DOE OSTI2022

Heat conduction in an irregular magnetic field. Part 2. Heat transport as a measure of the effective non-integrable volume

Given the large anisotropy of transport processes in magnetized plasmas, the magnetic field structure can strongly impact heat diffusion: magnetic surfaces and cantori form barriers to transport while chaotic layers and island structures can degrade confinement. When a small but non-zero amount of perpendicular diffusion is included, the structure of the magnetic field becomes less important, allowing pressure gradients to be supported across chaotic regions and island chains. We introduce a metric for the effective volume over which the local parallel diffusion dominates based on the solution to the anisotropic heat diffusion equation. To validate this metric, we consider model fields with a single island chain and a strongly chaotic layer for which analytic predictions of the relative parallel and perpendicular transport can be made. We also analyse critically chaotic fields produced from different sets of perturbations, highlighting the impact of the mode number spectrum on the heat transport. Our results indicate that this metric coincides with the effective volume of non-integrability in the limit $\kappa _{\perp } \rightarrow 0$ , where $\kappa_{\perp}$ is the perpendicular diffusion coefficient. We propose that this metric be used to assess the impact of non-integrability on the heat transport in stellarator equilibria.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1983

Pseudo-updated constrained solution algorithm for nonlinear heat conduction

This paper develops efficiency and stability improvements in the incremental successive substitution (ISS) procedure commonly used to generate the solution to nonlinear heat conduction problems. This is achieved by employing the pseudo-update scheme of Broyden, Fletcher, Goldfarb and Shanno in conjunction with the constrained version of the ISS. The resulting algorithm retains the formulational simplicity associated with ISS schemes while incorporating the enhanced convergence properties of slope driven procedures as well as the stability of constrained approaches. To illustrate the enhanced operating characteristics of the new scheme, the results of several benchmark comparisons are presented.

Tovichakchaikul, S.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Application of axial grooves to cryogenic variable conductance heat pipe technology

Tests results obtained with an ATS axial groove aluminum extrusion adapted for use as a cryogenic thermal diode and/or a variable conductance heat pipe are presented. Ethane at a nominal operating temperature of 185 C was used as working fluid. In addition to both active and passive gas control, diode designs utilizing gas blockage or liquid trap were investigated. Specific requirements and performance parameters such as transient behavior, reservoir sizes, shutdown energy, etc., were evaluated. Results are also presented for tests where the liquid trap was used as a secondary heat pipe to demonstrate thermal switching with simultaneous heat pipe operation and diode shutdown.

Brennan, P. J.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Steady-state heat conduction in multilayered composite plates and shells

A study is made of a predictor-corrector procedure for the accurate determination of the temperature and heat flux distributions in thick multilayered composite plates and shells. A linear through-the-thickness temperature distribution is used in the predictor phase. The functional dependence of temperature on the thickness coordinate is then calculated a posteriori and used in the corrector phase. Extensive numerical results are presented for linear steady-state heat conduction problems, showing the effects of variation in the geometric and lamination parameters on the accuracy of the thermal response predictions of the predictor-corrector approach. Both antisymmetrically laminated anisotropic plates and multilayered orthotropic cylinders are considered. The solutions are assumed to be periodic in the surface coordinates. For each problem the standard of comparison is taken to be the analytic three-dimensional solution based on treating each layer as a homogeneous anisotropic medium. The potential of the predictor-corrector approach for predicting the thermal response of multilayered plates and shells with complicated geometry is discussed.

Noor, A. K.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Coupled Ablation, Heat Conduction, Pyrolysis, Shape Change and Spallation of the Galileo Probe

The Galileo probe enters the atmosphere of Jupiter in December 1995. This paper presents numerical methodology and detailed results of our final pre-impact calculations for the heat shield response. The calculations are performed using a highly modified version of a viscous shock layer code with massive radiation coupled with a surface thermochemical ablation and spallation model and with the transient in-depth thermal response of the charring and ablating heat shield. The flowfield is quasi-steady along the trajectory, but the heat shield thermal response is dynamic. Each surface node of the VSL grid is coupled with a one-dimensional thermal response calculation. The thermal solver includes heat conduction, pyrolysis, and grid movement owing to surface recession. Initial conditions for the heat shield temperature and density were obtained from the high altitude rarefied-flow calculations of Haas and Milos. Galileo probe surface temperature, shape, mass flux, and element flux are all determined as functions of time along the trajectory with spallation varied parametrically. The calculations also estimate the in-depth density and temperature profiles for the heat shield. All this information is required to determine the time-dependent vehicle mass and drag coefficient which are necessary inputs for the atmospheric reconstruction experiment on board the probe.

Milos, Frank S.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Compact pulsed laser having improved heat conductance

A highly efficient, compact pulsed laser having high energy to weight and volume ratios is provided. The laser utilizes a cavity reflector that operates as a heat sink and is essentially characterized by having a high heat conductivity, by being a good electrical insulator and by being substantially immune to the deleterious effects of ultra-violet radiation. Manual portability is accomplished by eliminating entirely any need for a conventional circulating fluid cooling system.

Yang, L. C.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Theory and design of variable conductance heat pipes

A comprehensive review and analysis of all aspects of heat pipe technology pertinent to the design of self-controlled, variable conductance devices for spacecraft thermal control is presented. Subjects considered include hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, heat transfer into and out of the pipe, fluid selection, materials compatibility and variable conductance control techniques. The report includes a selected bibliography of pertinent literature, analytical formulations of various models and theories describing variable conductance heat pipe behavior, and the results of numerous experiments on the steady state and transient performance of gas controlled variable conductance heat pipes. Also included is a discussion of VCHP design techniques.

Marcus, B. D.↗