Optimization of novel flat serial single-phase radiators for spacecraft thermal control

Space thermal radiators play a significant role in the thermal management of spacecraft. With the increase in heat dissipation requirement, the heat pipe radiators are being replaced by mechanically pumped fluid loop radiators. In recent years, authors proved that optimum serpentine serial radiators are advantageous over conventional optimum parallel radiators in terms of the mass and pressure drop. The spiral radiators, inspired by spiral plate heat exchangers, are proposed and analyzed as a replacement for the serpentine serial radiators. Performance analysis of radiators is carried out using conjugate heat transfer analysis. Conjugate heat transfer results are validated with the experimental results obtained from the literature. The performance analysis indicated that the circular spiral radiator performs better than the other two types due to their lower mass and pressure drop. Optimization of radiators is carried out using Taguchi Signal to Noise ratio analysis. Analysis of Variance is conducted to determine the percentage contribution of each variable to the performance of the radiator. When lower pressure drop requirement is prominent, the contribution of the diameter of the tube is 79.3%, whereas the contribution of fin thickness and pitch of the tubes are only 6.1% and 8.2%, respectively. The contribution of the fin thickness is 57.39%, the diameter of the tube is 37.71%, and the pitch of the tubes is 1.89% when the lower mass of the radiator is the prime requirement. The high-performance spiral radiators may find their application in the thermal management of human space flights and high-power GEO satellites.