Liquid film and heat transfer characteristics during superheated wall cooling via pulsed injection of a liquid jet

Abstract

Pulse firing is one of the major operation modes of bipropellant thrusters for the attitude control of small-scale spacecrafts. In the pulse-firing mode, the operational range of the thruster depends on the deterioration of liquid film cooling performance. Because cooling performance is determined by the balance of heat removed by the liquid film and transferred to the manifold, the behavior and heat transfer characteristics of liquid films under the intermittent injection of liquid jets must be understood to enable a wider range of operational patterns. We conducted cooling tests on a superheated metal plate via the pulsed injection of a liquid jet for better understanding of the pulsed cooling process. Different injection patterns, including continuous injection, with the same injection quantity were examined on two types of metal plates (aluminum alloy and copper), because the thermal properties of metal plates affect both the heat transfer characteristics of the liquid film and temperature rise of the plate during the inter-pulse duration. The cooling process was evaluated based on the evolution of the liquid film on the metal plate and rear-side temperature of the metal plate. The evolution and temperature were simultaneously visualized using a high-speed camera and infrared camera, respectively. To link the liquid film state to the heat transfer process, the temperature and heat flux on the cooled surface were estimated by solving the inverse problem of three-dimensional transient heat conduction. The results indicate that the wetting front position corresponds to the position of the maximum temperature gradient. Additionally, the residual liquid film is consumed through the evaporation and the droplet dispersion related to the nucleate boiling. The effects of thermal inertia and diffusivity of the metal plate highlight the differences in the amount of heat removed by the liquid film. The heat removed by the liquid film during pulsed cooling exhibited a peak and was higher than that removed by continuous injection on the aluminum alloy plate. Less heat was removed under low-duty-cycle conditions, and the amount of heat removed by the liquid film was lower than that removed by continuous injection on the copper plate.