Determining thermal resistance in the model of the liquid circuit of spacecraft thermal control system

The main function of a thermal control system (TCS) is to maintain the temperature at nodal points of a spacecraft in given ranges due to redistribution of thermal energy and the discharge of excess thermal energy into space. TCS may have a different design and principle of operation. One of the most common options is TCS using a liquid circuit (LC) and pumping coolant circulation. In the development of promising design-layout schemes for instrument compartments of nonhermetic formation spacecraft, it becomes necessary to state and solve new problems associated with the creation of computational and mathematical models of intermediate convective heat transfer in a fluid circuit.

For systems of integral equations of a LC thermal model with fairly complex topographic boundaries and connections, the justification and use of the defining (equivalent) thermal resistance seems to be a compromise of counting implementation of a system that simulates a TCS with integration along the length of the LC.

In this paper, for the computational model of the liquid circuit of the thermal control system, including the system of equations of two-dimensional thermal balance of the characteristic surfaces of a nonhermetic formation spacecraft, a method of calculating the determining thermal resistances was proposed and implemented. This method includes the calculation of the complex heat transfer coefficient and the local heat transfer coefficient to the heat carrier flow. The approach considered in this paper allows us to obtain a numerical solution for the distribution of heat flows and temperatures of liquid circuits with complex topographic boundaries and connections with minimal loss of accuracy. The determination of the local heat transfer coefficient makes it possible to take into account the influence of changes in the temperature of the coolant flow on the overall picture of convective heat exchange.