THERMAL INTERFACE EVALUATION TEST
Fission Surface Power > Thermal Interface Evaluation Test
Thermal Interface Evaluation Test Setup. Courtesy NASA.
A test rig is assembled and operational at the Heat Pipe Testing Laboratory at Glenn Research Center's (GRC) Electric Propulsion Lab to evaluate the thermal interface between a pumped single-phase fluid (water) and a heat pipe evaporator. Several different titanium-water heat pipes with various external fin geometries were manufactured at GRC. The heat pipes can be installed in the Thermal Interface Evaluation (TIE) test rig with the evaporators heated by the pumped water, representative of a pumped cooling loop for a Fission Surface Power (FSP) power conversion unit. The condenser section of the heat pipes is installed in a gas-gap calorimeter to measure heat transfer. The test plan specifies obtaining thermal performance characteristics of titanium-water heat pipes of approximately the same evaporator diameter and length as those envisioned for FSP radiators, operating in the temperature range of 400 K.
Various heat pipe evaporator designs. Courtesy NASA.
The test results will identify the necessary heat pipe evaporator designs needed to efficiently transfer heat to the radiator fins. The test matrix calls for a series of evaporators clamped into a titanium manifold and a series of evaporators immersed in an immersion chamber.
NASA Fact
When the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft arrives at Saturn, it will be traveling so fast that engineers will need to burn the spacecraft's engines for 97 minutes just to slow it down. If mission engineers don't do this, the spacecraft would keep on going, instead of entering the orbit around Saturn.
- NASA Official: Richard K. Shaltens
- Curator: Peggy A. Cornell
- Last Updated: July 02, 2008