Design Considerations for Lightweight Space Radiators Based on Fabrication and Test Experience with a Carbon-Carbon Composite Prototype Heat Pipe

Abstract

This report discusses the design implications for spacecraft radiators made possible by the successful fabrication and Proof-of-concept testing of a graphite-fiber-carbon-matrix composite (i.e., carbon-carbon (C-C)) heat pipe. The proto-type heat pipe, or space radiator element, consists of a C-C composite shell with integrally woven fins. It has a thin-walled furnace-brazed metallic (Nb-1%Zr) liner with end caps for containment of the potassium working fluid. A short extension of this liner, at increased wall thickness beyond the C-C shell, forms the heat pipe evaporator section which is in thermal contact with the radiator fluid that needs to be cooled. From geometric and thermal transport properties of the C-C composite heat pipe tested, a specific radiator mass of 1.45 kg/m2 can be derived. This is less than one-fourth the specific mass of present day satellite radiators. The report also discusses the advantage of segmented space radiator designs utilizing heat pipe elements, or segments, in their survivability to micro-meteoroid damage. This survivability is further raised by the use of condenser sections with attached fins, which also improve the radiation heat transfer rate. Since the problem of heat radiation from a fin does not lend itself to a closed analytical solution, a derivation of the governing differential equation and boundary conditions is given in appendix A, along with solutions for rectangular and parabolic fin profile geometries obtained by use of a finite difference computer code written by the author