UCONN Mechancial Engineering Senior Design Job Ticket
Sponsoring Company: UTC Aerospace Systems – Space Systems
Project Title:Sublimator Porous Plate with Integral Primary and Secondary Heat
Transfer Surfaces
Prime Contacts:
Mark Zaffetti
(860) 654-2908
The Engineering Challenge:
One unique piece of hardware that is used in spacecraft cooling systems is a sublimator. In this type of heat exchanger there is a hot coolant loop, a feed water loop and a porous plate that is subjected to the vacuum of space (see figure 1). The feed water loop fin is currently attached to the porous plate using spot welding. This is done because traditional brazing would fill all of the porous holes in the plate and stop its functionality. The spot welding is a labor intensive and time consuming process that also requires a great amount of inspection to ensure good quality for all of these weld joints. It would be beneficial to generate an alternate method for combining the primary heat transfer surface of the porous plate with the secondary heat transfer surface of the feed water loop fin.
Description of Problem/Project :
The project will be divided into two phases; a design and analysis phase followed by a fabrication and testing phase.
In the first phase, the students will first generate a schedule for the project showing critical tasks for both phases of the project that will lead to a successful project. Next, they will concept methods for eliminating the spot welds and making the primary and secondary heat transfer surfaces integral. This would consist of brainstorming different ideas and then generating a criteria matrix, with the assistance of UTAS engineering, to down select to one or two ideas that would then be fabricated and tested. With the porous plate material being stainless steel, one potential solution for making these surfaces integral would be to use additive manufacturing, or similar method, to “grow” the feed water loop fins onto the porous plate. Another possible solution would be to use perforated ruffled fins in lieu of the foam. Once the concept(s) are finalized, the students would perform a detail design for a proof of concept configuration including calculating the expected thermal and structural performance. Finally, a test verification plan will be created that will outline the thermal and structural testing to be performed. This plan should include a test procedure, a budget and a list of required materials to perform the testing.
In the second phase of the project, test hardware would be fabricated and tested. For the performance testing, the thermal input should be simulated by heaters. For the structural testing, a stress measurement method, such as strain gauges, should be used to obtain results that will be used to compare against the predictions generated in the first phase of the project. Any discrepancies discovered during the testing phase should be investigated and, if needed, the analysis modified to address them.
Expected Deliverables:
Final deliverables would include:
- a final recommendation for making the primary and secondary surfaces integral and eliminating the spot welds
- the analytical model(s) for the performance and structural prediction
- the actual test hardware
- a detailed final report documenting all of the analyses, fabrication, testing, results and conclusions.
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Figure 1 Sublimator Construction
Is there a specific software package required for the projects? Y ___ N _X__
Which package (name/version) ______
U.S. Citizen/Person (green card) Required? Y_X___ N ____
Will Export Controlled data be used in project (EAR/ITAR) Y _____N_X__
NDA/IP Agreements required? Y X___ N __
Other considerations:
Other considerations: