TY - JOUR

T1 - Prediction of thermal contact resistance for reusable heat-pipe cooled thermal protection system based on an inverse thermo-mechanical coupling method

AU - Zhang, Chunyun

AU - Yu, Peng

AU - Sun, Chengbao

AU - Peng, Haifeng

AU - Cui, Miao

AU - Xu, Bingbing

N1 - Funding Information: Financial support of this work by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12172078, 12272081) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (DUT21LK04) is gratefully acknowledged.

PY - 2024/6

Y1 - 2024/6

N2 - Thermal contact resistance (TCR) is a critical characteristic on increasing or decreasing thermal energy transmission efficiency between two bodies in thermal management systems. However, it is difficult to accurately determine the thermal contact resistance in actual engineering structures, due to the complicated influence factors, such as pressure, temperature, and physical properties. In the work, a new method is presented to estimate the thermal contact resistance for a three-dimensional (3D) reusable heat-pipe cooled thermal protection system based on boundary measurements, by solving transient inverse thermo-mechanical coupling problems. Moreover, the thermal contact resistance varies with interface pressure, temperature, and spatial position, which is more practical and challenging. The thermo-mechanical coupling analysis is conducted by the finite element method, and the inversion is carried out by the gradient-based algorithm. First, the present method is validated by identifying the constant TCR, based on the available experimental data. Then, the thermal contact resistance with the functional form in the 3D reusable thermal protection system is accurately estimated. Finally, the convergence stability and robustness of the proposed method are evaluated, by considering the effects of initial guess value and measurement error, respectively. The accurate determination of thermal contact resistance of the reusable thermal protection system effectively avoids the overweight of aircraft and improves its utilization. The present work provides a novel approach for the determination of thermal contact resistance in actual engineering applications.

AB - Thermal contact resistance (TCR) is a critical characteristic on increasing or decreasing thermal energy transmission efficiency between two bodies in thermal management systems. However, it is difficult to accurately determine the thermal contact resistance in actual engineering structures, due to the complicated influence factors, such as pressure, temperature, and physical properties. In the work, a new method is presented to estimate the thermal contact resistance for a three-dimensional (3D) reusable heat-pipe cooled thermal protection system based on boundary measurements, by solving transient inverse thermo-mechanical coupling problems. Moreover, the thermal contact resistance varies with interface pressure, temperature, and spatial position, which is more practical and challenging. The thermo-mechanical coupling analysis is conducted by the finite element method, and the inversion is carried out by the gradient-based algorithm. First, the present method is validated by identifying the constant TCR, based on the available experimental data. Then, the thermal contact resistance with the functional form in the 3D reusable thermal protection system is accurately estimated. Finally, the convergence stability and robustness of the proposed method are evaluated, by considering the effects of initial guess value and measurement error, respectively. The accurate determination of thermal contact resistance of the reusable thermal protection system effectively avoids the overweight of aircraft and improves its utilization. The present work provides a novel approach for the determination of thermal contact resistance in actual engineering applications.

KW - Parameter prediction

KW - Reusable heat-pipe cooled thermal protection system

KW - Thermal contact resistance

KW - Thermo-mechanical coupling analysis

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85191161413&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.renene.2024.120541

DO - 10.1016/j.renene.2024.120541

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85191161413

VL - 227

JO - Renewable energy

JF - Renewable energy

SN - 0960-1481

M1 - 120541

ER -