Numerical Simulation of the Air Cooling System for Scientific Payload Rack on a Space Station

The space scientific payload rack is a multifunctional experimental platform, and the requirements of the environmental temperature index are different for diversified experimental modules inside. The air cooling system is an important part of the rack thermal control system. A new type of air cooli...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEnergies (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 22; p. 6145
Main Authors Lou, Yuan-Yuan, Cai, Ben-Yuan, Li, Yun-Ze, Li, Jia-Xin, Li, En-Hui
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published MDPI AG 01.11.2020
Subjects
air cooling
numerical simulation
scientific payload rack
space station
temperature and flow field
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Summary:The space scientific payload rack is a multifunctional experimental platform, and the requirements of the environmental temperature index are different for diversified experimental modules inside. The air cooling system is an important part of the rack thermal control system. A new type of air cooling system with small size and flexible arrangement is proposed in this paper, that is, micro air ducts with pinhole-sized air vents. The rack physical models of new and traditional air cooling modes are established, respectively. The numerical simulation of the inner air flow is carried out by Ansys Fluent CFD software (Ansys Inc., Canonsburg, PA, USA), which verifies that compared with the traditional method, the temperature field and flow field of the new air cooling method are more uniform, and the heat sources located at the edge of the rack can also be cooled better.
ISSN:1996-1073
1996-1073
DOI:10.3390/en13226145